


Miracles

by MaidenHell



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Action, Adventure, Danger, F/M, Fluff, Love, MacCready has a very sweary inner monologue, Romance, Talk of Suicidal Thoughts, kind of slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-03-18 08:05:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13677654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaidenHell/pseuds/MaidenHell
Summary: MacCready has been trying to get his life together for so long, he’s not entirely certain what a normal life looks like anymore.But he’s pretty sure it normally doesn’t involve a 233 year old vault dweller staking a claim over his usually closed heart.





	1. Lost Property

“I call dibs on the best pistol!”

Emma had started looting boxes and corpses before the last gunner had fallen down dead, a satisfied smile on her face as she observed the carnage around them that they’d caused on the crumbling overpass that had, until approximately twenty minutes ago, been home to a group of gunners. MacCready stepped over the road barrier and approached her, repositioning his rifle on his back with an exasperated expression.

”Y’know, maybe you should wait until _after_ the men who’re trying to kill us are dead, before looting their bodies? Just a suggestion.”

She paused with her arm buried up to the elbow in a discarded backpack and looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “Says you.” She said drily, eyeing a bottle of whiskey in his hand that hadn’t been there a second ago.

”Hey this is mine! I left it here when I ditched the gunners. So really I’m just reclaiming lost property.” He said defensively as he unscrewed the top and took a deep drink.

”Yeah sure, whatever you say Mac.” She snorted, tossing him some ammo. She stood up and winced, placing her hand gingerly over a slightly bloody spot on her side as she straightened up, MacCready looked on with concern.

”I’m really sorry, I have no idea where Winlock and Barnes managed to get their hands on an assaultron, it sure as hel- heck wasn’t around when I was here.”

”Probably salvaged it from RobCo, that place is crawling with them” She replied, taking a deep breath and exhaling shortly, she turned slightly in an effort to hide her discomfort.

”You sure you don’t want me to have a look at that?”

Emma waved him off as it seemed the pain was subsiding. “No, honestly it’s just a graze. I’ll see to it when we’re back in Goodneighbor.”

The fact that there was still a faint crease on her brow did little to convince him, but he knew better than to push the subject. Emma was a tiny thing, the top of her head barely reaching his chin, but damn she was scary when she was pissed off, so he let the matter drop, for now at least.

”Hey,” He started, placing a careful hand on her shoulder to stop her before she walked off to rummage through yet another battered old cooler. “I wanted to thank you, y’know, for helping me get rid of Winlock and Barnes. Those clowns had been chasing me all over the Commonwealth for the past year, threatening me and demanding I rejoin the gunners, I was starting to think I’d never truly be free from that life. It feels good knowing they’re gone.”

”Well, from what you told me it sounds like we’ve done the whole Commonwealth a huge favour.” She replied as she glared around them at the cosy little digs the gunners had made for themselves, at the multitude of guns and boxful of jewellery and other precious items, and though MacCready never personally had a hand in the harming of innocent people, he felt a terrible guilt all the same.

”Those guys were assholes, they had it coming. Besides, you’ve done a lot for me lately, it’s only right I do something for you in return.” She turned to him and smiled warmly.

It was true that he’d helped her out with a lot since she’d hired him over a month ago back in the Third Rail. He hadn’t planned to travel for long with the over 200 year old woman (now _that_ had been a hell of a lot of information to digest), intending for them to take up a few odd jobs here and there for extra caps before he took off. That had all changed when she learned the location of her husbands killer, the man who stole her child away while she was locked up in a cryo pod, unable to do anything to stop it.

MacCready had accompanied her to the old army compound where she confronted Kellogg, where she pointed a gun in his face defiantly, despite being surrounded by a horde of synths, and demanded answers, before gunning him down in cold blood. It was then that he decided to throw his hat in with her for a little while longer, he’d never seen anyone so willing to fight for what was theirs before, it was downright inspiring.

And yet, despite all she’d been through, all the trauma and fear, despite their playful banter and her sometimes short temper, Emma had always been so good to him. Though MacCready knew very well that he didn’t deserve it.

”Well, I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate it. I mean, you hired me to watch your back, and here I am asking favours of you. It means a lot, so I... I want you to take this, it’s the money you gave me when you hired me, I figure it’s only right after all you’ve done for me.”

He held out the leather pouch that clattered with caps, but Emma shook her head and pushed it back towards him.

”Keep it, a deal’s a deal. I don’t expect payment for helping out a friend.”

”But...”

”I _want_ you to keep it.” She said firmly. “Besides, I’ll only spend it on booze anyway.” She laughed. MacCready’s face turned into a playful frown.

”That’s what _I_ was gonna do with it!” He whined, earning him another laugh as Emma hopped on the elevator to take them back down to the ground, her bag considerably bulkier than it had been before they had arrived.

”Well then, you can buy me a drink when we get back to Goodneighbor. That sound fair?”

MacCready grinned and aimed a kick at Barnes’ head as he joined her on the platform.

”You’ve got a deal.”

 

* * *

  

Predictably, one drink turned into two drinks turned into seven drinks and both MacCready and Emma were leaning drunkenly over the table they were occupying at the Third Rail playing a game of ‘Would you Rather.’ It had started off pretty tame at first, _‘Would you rather poke a sleeping Deathclaw in the eye or poke a sleeping Hancock in the eye?’_ But it had soon transcended into pure smut the more drunk they got.

”Ok my turn!” Slurred MacCready as he knocked back his eighth drink that night, a little voice in his head was telling him he’d regret it in the morning but, as usual, he didn’t listen. “Would you rather... bump uglies with a feral ghoul- no wait, a _glowing_ feral ghoul, ooor... give birth to a fully grown super mutant?”

Emma scrunched her eyes shut and laughed in disgust at her choices before she fell silent, a grin on her face as she pondered her decision.

”So, when you say _’bump uglies’_ you mean...”

”I mean ‘dirty, irradiated, gooey feral ghoul sex,’” He replied with a wicked, childlike grin. Emma sighed and took a deep drink, MacCready could tell she was stalling.

”Ok, ok,” She laughed as he leaned closer with his eyebrows raised expectantly. “I guess I could reverse cowgirl the ghoul, way better than dying a second time during childbirth.”

The laughter on both their faces suddenly died away as Emma realised what she’d said, she looked away from him, down at the table. MacCready was stunned.

”You... You died in childbirth?” He asked in a hushed voice. When she nodded his mouth fell open in shock. “Fu- shi- what happened?” He asked, looking at her as though maybe she’d been a ghost this whole time, with everything else he’d learned about her, why not? Emma took another deep drink, avoiding his gaze, the look on her face was indescribable.

“There were... some complications, when I gave birth to Shaun. Trauma in the womb, they said they couldn’t stop the bleeding. I was dead for a full minute on the operating table before they managed to bring me back. In the end, they had no choice but to perform a hysterectomy.” She looked MacCready in the eyes at last and gave him a small smile, leaning back in her chair.

”So, no super mutant babies for me.” She said in a tone that was way too light and airy for the story she’d just told.

If she was hoping for a smile from him, it only half worked. MacCready breathed the shortest laugh before asking what must have seemed like such a childish question.

”Did you see anything? Y’know, when you died?”

“You mean did I see a white light or pearly gates?” She chuckled low, then her face dropped again, leaving only a trace of a smile.

”No. There was nothing, it was like a dreamless sleep. I remember blacking out after giving birth, and waking up four days later in recovery. Nate was beside himself with worry, he told me that the doctor said he should _’make preparations,’_ they all thought I wasn’t going to make it, I _shouldn’t_ have made it.”

”But you did. you survived all that, _and_ you survived a fu- reaking nuclear war, and you’re still surviving now, you’re like a medical marvel.” He said in awe, she looked at him carefully, as though unsure how to handle this strange compliment.

”You’re right, I did survive. But at what cost? My husband is gone and I’m still no closer to my son. He was only three months old when the bombs fell and we were separated again, and now I find out that I’ve missed ten whole years of his life! That’s a special kind of fucked up. I dunno, between the birth and all of...  _this_ ,” She gestured around them and MacCready took that to mean ‘this new world.’ “Sometimes I wonder if this is fates way of saying I was never meant to be a mother.” She rested her forehead in her palm wearily as she spoke, strands of her hair falling in her face.

”I don’t believe that, not for a second. You’ve been fighting for your son since the moment you stepped out of that vault, everything you’ve done has been for him, to make sure he’s found. Honestly, I’d say that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that you _do_ deserve to be a mother. Anyway, Nick’s checking over that freaky brain-chip thing we took from Kellogg. You’re way closer than you think, you’re gonna find him Em, you _have_ to believe that. Fate be damned!”

Emma looked up at him sceptically and for a moment neither of them said anything. Then she sighed and picked up her drink again.

“Has anyone ever told you that you have a very comforting presence?” She asked.

He gaped at her, how drunk was she right now? Comforting? Hell no. Sarcastic? Annoying? A little childish even? Absolutely.

When he didn’t reply she smiled and tapped their glasses together. “Thanks Mac, I appreciate the optimism, sorry I dragged the celebration down a bit. Now, my turn.

Would you rather...”


	2. Baby

MacCready woke up with the mother of all hangovers, as he knew he would. After about ten minutes of lying in bed wondering if it would finish him off to try, he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He got up and approached the faded mirror hanging on the wall, Jesus he looked a mess. His eyes were red and bloodshot, he hadn’t shaved and his hair stuck up in all directions.

And people wondered why he was still single?

He got ready as quickly as his splitting headache would allow, not even bothering to lace up his boots, and left his room at the Hotel Rexford, crossing the hall to Emma’s room. He knocked and entered when a muffled voice answered.

”I hope you feel as bad as I do right now, because if not-“ He stopped abruptly as he caught sight of her.

Emma was sat on her bed, her armour was strewn across the floor and she was attempting to see to the laser burn on her ribs. Badly. She was fumbling with the awkward angle and held the bottom hem of her t-shirt between her teeth as she kept it raised, wincing whenever she made a wrong move.

”Oh shi- Em, I thought you were going to get that looked at!” He said, crossing the room and dropping to his knees to have a look. Emma released her t-shirt and held it in place with her hand as MacCready took over.

”Well, that was originally the plan, but then we started drinking and the next thing I knew I was waking up in bed, so- Ow!” She gasped as MacCready injected her with the stimpak she’d left on the edge of the bed.

”You’ll thank me for that in about three seconds.” He said. And soon enough, within those three seconds the burn had started to fade until it was nothing more than a pink blotch on her pale skin, she lowered her shirt and rubbed the spot where the pain had been.

”Thanks, I’m still getting used to the whole ‘do-it-yourself surgery.’” She sighed as she hopped off the bed and threw on a flannel shirt. Now that he was looking at her properly, MacCready could see the remnants of a hangover in the dark circles under her eyes and the lethargic way she was moving around, he couldn’t help but grin cockily.

”You need to get some better armour, I don’t think this stuff’s gonna last much longer.” He said, inspecting the battered leather leg piece he’d just picked up before tossing it to her.

”Later perhaps, for now I have a job. Preston sent me a message earlier, told me some robots in Greygarden need the pump at the old water treatment facility in the West started up again, to help them with their crops. Sounds simple enough, and if I can get them to help out the minutemen, their crops could be distributed to some of the smaller settlements who don’t have the means to grow their own.”

She said all of this mostly to herself as she tied her long hair back and flicked through the map on her pip-boy, plotting out a course to her destination.

”Sounds good, but can we head out after lunch? I think I need a couple more hours to sleep off this damn headache.”

Emma looked up in surprise. “You... wanna come with me?” She asked incredulously. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy you want to come but, I just kind of assumed after everything with Winlock and Barnes that you’d want to go off and do your own thing.”

MacCready placed a hand over his heart in feigned hurt. “You really think I’d just up and ditch you like that? Shame on you Em!”

”Actually, the way Hancock describes it, that’s _exactly_ what you’d do.” She replied with a smirk. He opened his mouth to respond but no sound came out.

Busted.

Ok, so he’d never exactly been the most reliable guy in the Commonwealth. He’d usually complete a contract and then vanish as soon as he’d collected payment, never wishing to hang around very long, and _maybe_ in the beginning he’d planned to do the same thing to Emma too. But he couldn’t deny that during their time together he’d actually grown quite fond of her, something about the way she operated just made him want to stick around and help out.

At least, that’s what he told himself.

Emma laughed as he opened and closed his mouth stupidly. “Relax _kid_ , I’m not gonna turn you away, of course you can come.”

The emphasis on the word ‘kid’ stirred him into a response. “You have literally one year up on me. One. Year.” He whined.

MacCready loathed his reputation as the ‘baby-faced merc,’ people never seemed to take him seriously when they found out how young he was. Although, he did take great pleasure in stunning them all with his impressive sharpshooting skills, after a brief demonstration they would practically line up down the street with caps in hand to hire him.

”Actually, I technically have 233 years up on you. Young’un.”

“Yeah, you look like it too.” MacCready bit back, dragging a finger under his eye to imitate her dark circles. Emma made a noise somewhere between humour and outrage and threw a pillow at the back of his head as he walked out of the room.

He could hear her not so thinly veiled threats and laughter echoing down the corridor as he went back to his own room and threw himself back down on the bed.

“Why exactly am I still following her again?” He asked himself as he closed his eyes.

 

* * *

 

“On your left!”

Oh yeah, that’s why.

MacCready shot at the super mutant that was swinging wildly at Emma with what looked like a plank of wood wrapped in barbed wire, hitting it between the eyes so that it dropped dead at her feet, she turned around and nodded in thanks before rushing on ahead to take out another one with her own rifle.

“Sure, restart the pump at the old water treatment facility, _totally_ easy job.” He muttered as he stared down his sights at a super mutant hound that was running riot, dispatching it easily.

Upon their arrival, they’d been met by a horde of super mutants who’d decided to set up camp outside of the plant, throwing a proverbial spanner in the water works.

There was a faint beeping up ahead and Emma fell back as a suicider rounded the corner a little too close to her for comfort, a mini nuke held in its grimy fist. It was struggling to keep up with her on its stubby legs, allowing her to put a safe amount of distance between them as she raced towards MacCready.

”Shoot it!” She shouted as she approached, he didn’t need to be told twice. He lined up his shot and fired, hitting the super mutant in its raised fist, causing it to drop the nuke it was holding at its feet. They both dived behind a boulder and waited for the small nuclear explosion to cease.

A wave of radiation flew over them, not quite enough to make him feel ill, but he looked over at Emma and saw that her eyes were clamped shut, and her hand was resting over her stomach in discomfort.

”Here, it’ll help.” He said as he reached into his pocket and handed her some rad-away which she took without opening her eyes.

”Fucking rads, why don’t they affect you as much as they do me?” She groaned as she injected herself, sighing deep as the chem worked its magic.

”Well, I mean, I’m hardly resistant to it, my body’s just grown accustomed to low levels of radiation. You, on the other hand, weren’t born in a rad storm, your body needs time to adjust. You’re practically a baby in this world.” MacCready added with a smirk.

”Says the literal baby.” She retorted, ignoring the indignant splutter MacCready made as she peered over the boulder to see if the coast was clear. “I think that nuke took out the last of them, let’s go.”

”I’m a grown ass fu- man. A grown man. Plus, I have _way_ more post-nuclear life experience than you so, there!” He retorted, realising when Emma started giggling how childish that quip sounded and cringing inwardly.

”Mmm, crispy mutant bits.” Muttered Emma sarcastically, wrinkling her nose as they kicked aside burnt chunks of super mutant.

”Dare you to dry a bit.” Grinned MacCready, picking up what looked like a finger and holding it out to her, wiggling it in her face.

”Y’know, I’ve eaten some weird shit since I thawed out six months ago, but I think I’m gonna draw the line at barbecued super mutant. If _you_ want to try it though, knock your self out.” She said, pushing his arm back towards him. MacCready responded by throwing the finger at Emma, it hit her in the face and she squeaked in disgust while he walked away with his arms raised triumphantly, celebrating “another perfect shot.”

”Oh you are so fucked, just you wait.” Emma growled menacingly, her eyes narrowing in a threat.

They trudged through the flooded water plant, MacCready grumbling all the while at having wet socks. (“And our ammo’s gonna be soaked!”) Apparently the super mutants had no interest in what was inside as there was no evidence of their presence. No _tasteful_ meat bags or _alluring_ stench of death. But they didn’t need to do much digging before they found out why that was. Mirelurks. Lots of them. They would have to get rid of them before they got anywhere near the water pumps in the basement. Emma suggested they play a game, whoever got the most kills was bought a drink at the Third Rail by the loser. MacCready happily agreed, and within minutes he boasted eleven kills while she lagged behind on eight.

”Twelve!”

”What? No way, that one was my kill!” She exclaimed, pointing at a dead mirelurk that was floating past her ankles.

“Nuh uh, you hit it in the chest, _I_ hit it in the head.” He shot back with a self-satisfied grin.

After a few minutes all went quiet, and MacCready set about trying to decide what drink he would make Emma buy for him once they were back in Goodneighbor, something expensive probably. Emma approached a railing and peered down into the flooded basement.

”We need to flush out this water so we can get down to the main pump.” She sighed, looking around for some way to begin the process, a small crease appeared between her brows as it always did when she was thinking.

MacCready remembered the first time he saw that expression, it was on their first job together. They’d been pinned down by the group of raiders they were hired to dispose of and Emma was trying to figure out how to get them out of the huge mess they’d walked into. Luckily for them, the raiders were taking pot shots at them while standing next to a some old cars that still had their fuel tanks intact. Amateurs. A couple of frag grenades and one big kaboom later and they were walking back to Diamond City to collect a very handsome payday.

Fun times.

”Shame it’s too deep to just swim down.” Emma muttered with a grin, looking over her shoulder at him. He opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, but at that moment there was a disturbance within the water and a mirelurk leapt out to swipe with its jagged claws at Emma who was still stood by the rail. MacCready raced forward and put an arm across her chest to pull her back before she could be dragged over the side.

They tumbled over backwards as the mirelurk dived back beneath the water, but there was more bubbling at the surface as, one by one, more mirelurks surfaced, way too many for them to handle from the small platform they were on. So they both scrambled to their feet and made a run for a nearby office, barricading the door with an old desk.

”Shit, I think my heart about burst through my chest.” Gasped Emma as she leaned against the wall with her hand over her heart. “Thanks Mac, I really-“

She cut off as she realised MacCready was cradling a heavily bleeding forearm, her eyes went wide in shock.

”Holy shit Mac, your arm!” She cried, rushing forward and guiding him to a chair. She dropped to her knees and immediately began digging through her bag for stimpaks and strips of cloth to mop up the blood, she also pulled out a bottle of antiseptic.

”C’mon, is that really necessary? That stuff stings.” He moaned, eyeing the bottle apprehensively, Emma gave him a reproving look.

”You’ve just been sliced up by an irradiated crab, the cut needs disinfecting, don’t be a baby.” She muttered as she pressed one of the cloths to his arm to staunch the bleeding and instructed him to hold it there while she cleaned the tips of the needles, something he wasn’t used to doing personally.

MacCready gritted his teeth as she wiped at his cut with the antiseptic and injected the stimpaks, it didn’t take long after that for the pain to subside and the skin to heal over, just like Emma’s burn that morning, good as new.

After inspecting the newly healed cut he looked down at Emma who was sat with her hands balled into fists on her knees, her jaw was set tight and she looked pale. Like, paler than usual.

”Hey, what’re you worried for? You did a good job Em. Thanks.” He muttered, putting two fingers under her chin so she’d look at him, she nodded and gave him a small smile.

”Yeah, sorry it’s just, I saw all the blood and for a moment I thought... it... it scared me for a moment, that’s all.” She said in a hushed voice as she stood up and wiped his blood from her hands. She walked over to a desk with a working terminal sat on it and leaned against it, pulling out two cigarettes and tossing him one which he accepted gladly. They shared a couple minutes comfortable silence as they smoked the adrenaline of the last ten minutes away before Emma turned her attention to the terminal behind her.

”Looks like there’s turrets hidden all over the basement, some old pre-war security measure,” She said without turning away from the screen. “If I can activate them, it’ll make clearing out those mirelurks a walk in the park.”

MacCready stood up and looked over her shoulder at the terminal. None of the coding on the screen made any sense to him. “Can you actually read all that, or are you ribbing me?”

”Most of it, Sturges taught me how to hack into most terminals. He reckons it’s an important skill to have out here. Glad to see his lessons aren’t going to waste.” She muttered as she typed, cursing under her breath whenever she miss-typed some code.

”Well, that just looks like gibberish to me, so I’m gonna have to take you at your word.” He replied, going back to his cigarette.

After a few minutes of nothing but the sound of Emma’s fingers typing away and the occasional faint scuttling outside, there was a positive beeping and the new sound of gunfire outside the office door. MacCready peered through the window as one by one the mirelurks, drawn to the surface by the noise above the water, all fell dead. He couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief.

”Great plan Em, it’s working! But uh, how are _we_ gonna get past those turrets?”

The smug smile on her face faded. “Shit, didn’t think of that.”

Perfect.


	3. Partnership

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: some serious feels and talk of suicidal thoughts in this chapter.

“Say it.”

”Nope.”

”C’mon, you know you want to.”

”Not gonna happen. Ever.”

MacCready had been trying for the last two hours to get Emma to admit that he was simply the best shot in the entire Commonwealth. After realising that she couldn’t deactivate the turrets that had taken out the hoard of mirelurks that had them pinned down in the water treatment plant (“Sturges taught me how to hack into turrets, but he never got to the part about turning them off again!”), it had been up to MacCready to snipe them out, one by one, before they could continue draining the basement and activating the elusive pump. The robots at Greygarden were delighted when they turned up to report their success and Emma was thrilled when they agreed to assist the minutemen with their trade.

Job well done as far as he was concerned.

“Fine. I’m just gonna assume that your reluctance to praise me is because you’re so damn impressed with my sharpshooting that you simply can’t put it into words.” He insisted, turning his nose up at her in feigned petulance.

Emma scoffed in response. “Oh I can think of a few words alright.” She muttered darkly.

They continued to bicker back and forth as they entered the gates of Goodneighbor. Night had fallen and the streets were full of the usual drunken revellers stumbling over the cobbles. They headed straight for the Third Rail and sat down at the same table they’d occupied the other night, MacCready was about to bring up the drink she owed him when a figure approached Emma from behind and placed a weathered metal hand on her shoulder.

”There you are kid, I was beginning to think you’d gone AWOL on me.”

She spun quickly in her chair, her weariness from the road disappearing in an instant as she took in the sight of Nick Valentine. His signature detective’s getup completely out of place in a bar full of drifters and mercs. “Nick, hey, what are you doing here? Is it-“

”I think I’ve cracked it Emma.” He said, reaching into his pocket and removing the component that she’d taken from Kellogg after she killed him. It was a tiny thing, not much bigger than his thumb, but Emma was looking at it like it was the most precious thing in the world right now.

”We need to get this to Doctor Amari in the Memory Den, you free now?” Nick asked, his eyes flickering over to MacCready for just a second. Emma all but launched herself out of her chair before turning apologetically to face him.

”Sorry, this shouldn’t take too long, I’ll be back soon.” She said hurriedly before turning to walk out of the bar with Nick.

”Sure you don’t want me to tag along?” He called to her a little too quickly, Nick raised an eyebrow suspiciously, but Emma only smiled.

”It’s fine, don’t sweat it Mac. We’ll be back before you know it, try not to drink the place dry before I return.” She said with a wink that made his chest constrict unnaturally before she turned and walked off, leaving him alone massaging his chest as though he was having a heart attack. It wasn’t long before her vacant seat was occupied by a ghoul wearing a ridiculous old frock coat.

”Hey there Mac, how’s things?” Asked Hancock, leaning back in his chair and resting a foot on the table, MacCready couldn’t help but think that if he attempted such a thing then Whitechapel Charlie would haul his ass out of there in a second.

Ah, the perks of being the Mayor of Goodneighbor.

“Hey Hancock, doin’ alright I guess. How’s Fahrenheit? Still pining after me?” He grinned cockily, Hancock laughed roughly.

”If by ‘pining’ you mean ‘has a crudely drawn picture of you on the back of her bedroom door that she uses for target practice,’ then yeah, she’s pining away _real_ hard.” He grinned at MacCready’s concerned grimace.

_Jeez, you steal one grudge kill from a girl and suddenly you’re public enemy number one._

”An’ speaking of pining, where’d your girl run off to in such a hurry? Ol’ Nick seemed a little antsy when he rocked up in town earlier.”

”She’s _not_ my girl Hancock. She hired me to watch her back is all. Are you high?” He added, noticing the mayor’s ‘not-all-there’ expression and the erratic way he was moving his arms.

“That’s neither here nor there, everyone knows about the little partnership that the two of you’ve got going on, but lately you guys have been glued to each other’s hip, I never see one of you without the other somewhere close by. Guy can’t help but wonder if there’s a whole other kind of _partnership_ going on here.”

MacCready felt that uncomfortable constricting in his chest again and was seriously starting to debate whether or not to go see a damn doctor. Hancock raised a bare brow at his expression and chuckled knowingly.

_Smarmy bastard._

It was true that they’d spent pretty much every waking moment together in the short time since she’d hired him, and they’d grown close as _friends_ rather than employer and employee in that time, but so what? That meant nothing. Was Hancock seriously asking if he had feelings for Emma?

_No. Don’t be crazy._

”Em’s a friend, and that’s all there is to it. Drop it will ya?”

”Whatever you say kid.” Replied Hancock, that know-it-all grin not quite disappearing from his face as he called out for a couple of drinks. They stayed there for a few hours, drinking and exchanging stories of their last few weeks, swapping gossip and, at one point, betting on a fight that had broken out in the other corner of the bar. The hulking drifter that MacCready picked winning an easy victory over the well armoured caravan guard. It had been nearly three hours when he realised that Emma still hadn’t returned, he was trying not to act concerned, but he couldn’t ignore the worry bubbling away inside of him. Or maybe that just the beer?

He was debating whether or not to just go over to the Memory Den and check on her when Nick returned, alone. He looked a little stressed as he sat in Hancock’s empty chair (Hancock had disappeared some time ago with a beautiful woman on his arm) and lit up a cigarette.

”Is everything ok? Where’s Em?” He asked, eyes darting to the entrance as though she might suddenly appear, Nick shook his head.

“I’m not sure, she... a lot happened in the Memory Den.” Replied Nick, smoking his cigarette at an alarming speed.

”What? What happened?” He asked, Nick said nothing at first which only agitated him. “Look, you know I’ll only get Emma to tell me when I find her.” He added, Nick pondered this for a moment, then finally relented.

”Ok fine. Well, I should start off by saying that we know now how the Institute get around, they use some form of teleportation to instantly disappear and reappear in another place, that means our next step is to figure out how to replicate this ability so that we can get in there and save Shaun.”

”Well, that’s good news, isn’t it?” Asked MacCready, brows furrowed in confusion. Nick gave a small sigh and shook his head.

”That’s the only bit of good news. You see, we had to search through a lot of Kellogg’s memories in order to find that one crucial piece of information and one of those memories, well... she had to watch him die again kid, her husband.”

There was a moments silence in which even the bars patrons seemed to quieten down as MacCready took this information in. “Shit.” He breathed, forgoing his usual filter.

MacCready knew all too well the pain of losing someone you loved. It was like a knife was being plunged into your heart over and over, digging deeper and twisting harder with each strike. To feel that pain even once was destroying, to feel it a second time... he didn’t want to imagine it.

Before he realised what he was doing, he’d stood up and grabbed his bag. “I’m gonna go look for her, do you know where she went?”

Nick shook his head as he lit his second cigarette. “No, she just said she needed some time to think and ran off, I was still a little out of it so I didn’t follow. Listen kid,” He grabbed MacCready’s arm as he made to walk away. “I know Emma hired you to help look after her, and in that time you’ve become pals, but, she’s been through a lot, and I see the way you look at her-“

”What exactly are you saying here Nick?” Asked MacCready hotly, he was getting a little tired of people insinuating that there was something going on between him and Emma.

”Just that, if you feel for her in the way I strongly suspect you do... don’t hurt her, she doesn’t deserve to go through all that again.” He said simply, releasing his arm and returning to his cigarette.

”Yeah, none of us do.” MacCready replied a little harshly, walking out of the bar without so much as a glance back.

 

* * *

 

 

He found her a short while later sat on the bed in her room at the Rexford, her back was resting against the headboard and her knees were drawn up to her chest. She didn’t look up when he entered the room. She was twirling two gold bands between her fingers, the faint light shining in from outside catching them and making them glint.

”I thought I might find you here.” He said as he approached her. She still didn’t look at him, but the corner of her mouth turned up into the tiniest smile.

”Sorry, should have come and told you I wasn’t up for another wild night. I just... didn’t want to be surrounded by all those people.” She mumbled.

”You don’t need to apologise to me. Nick came and found me.” He said as a way of explaining what he was doing there, she nodded once.

”I suppose he told you what happened in the Memory Den?” She asked. MacCready sat next to her on the edge of the bed.

”He... told me enough, are you alright?” He asked quietly.

”No.”

This time Emma did look at him, she looked exhausted, but not from the road. This was the kind of tired you felt when you’d forced yourself to be strong for far too long and now, at any moment, you might shatter into a thousand pieces.

He’d felt that kind of exhaustion before.

”It’s been more than six months since I left the vault, since I last saw Nate’s face, I... I thought I was starting to move forward, I _felt_ like I was moving forward,” she took a deep, shuddering breath before placing the two gold bands back in her pocket. “But, seeing it happen all over again made me realise that I haven’t moved anywhere at all, that I’ve been pretending these last few months to be fine when really, all I want is to curl up and die.” She sighed, her shoulders visibly slumping as though the weight of her words were pulling her down.

MacCready didn’t know what to say, so he placed a hand on her knee in what he hoped was a comforting gesture, she placed her hand on top of his and gave it a squeeze before continuing.

”I actually thought about it, you know, only for a moment. I’d just gotten out of the vault, I was sick, scared, heartbroken, and I just thought ‘What has this world got for me anymore now that Nate’s gone?’ But then I remembered Shaun and... I just felt so _guilty_ , what kind of mother would I be if I didn’t at least try to save him? So I’ve forced myself on ever since, no matter how many times I’ve wanted to just give up, I owe it to them both.”

MacCready was speechless. Everything she said, every word, every meaning, it was like he was looking into a mirror. His own thoughts and feelings reflected back to him.

He’d thought the same things after Lucy died. And, like Emma, he realised that he had to be strong for his son. Like Emma, his son was the only thing that kept him from falling over that edge.

For better or worse, they shared a lot in common.

”No one could fault you for thinking like that, I don’t.” He said finally. Her expression turned, full of sadness not for herself or her situation, but for him. She understood exactly what he meant without him saying anything.</p>

<p>”I’m so sorry, I had no idea.” She whispered. Her eyes shone with tears and she turned away quickly, not wanting him to see her in that state, but MacCready just breathed a short laugh and pulled her into a hug.

”This world sucks. It takes and takes and rarely gives anything back, that’s why you have to fight for what little you _do_ have. No one in this god forsaken place can ever doubt your strength Em, despite what you think, you’re a fighter. You’ve never stopped fighting for your son since the moment you woke up, Nate would be proud to see how far you’ve come.”

She said nothing, but after a moment he felt her shake in his arms as she finally released the tears she’d been holding back. He didn’t let go, but allowed her to release everything that she’d been bottling up for as long as she needed. His heart truly ached for her, she’d lost everything and everyone she’d ever cared for, yet she continued onward for her son’s sake. It seemed crazy to think that despite this, she still managed to find time to help other people with their stupid problems. mirelurk and super mutant infestations all seemed so trivial in the wake of what he now knew.

_This world doesn’t deserve someone as good as her._

As she buried her face into his chest, he rested his hand on the back of her head, his thumb stroking her hair. “It’s alright.” He murmured, unsure as to what else he could say. Her arms wrapped tighter around him and for the third time that night he felt his chest tighten.

_Shit. Maybe Hancock and Nick are right after all._

And maybe, just maybe, he was ok with that.


	4. Be a professional

The next morning saw torrential rain drive everybody off the streets of Goodneighbor, including Emma, MacCready and Nick, who were crowded around a small table in a quiet corner of the Third Rail discussing the memories they had extracted from Kellogg’s brain.

”An institute deserter is some pretty valuable information. If we can find him and win him over to our side he could provide us with some much needed help.” Nick surmised, his yellow eyes looking keen.

MacCready suppressed a yawn and rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palms. Emma, in her tormented state, had cried herself to sleep in his arms the night before and he hadn’t had the heart to move her, so instead he’d fallen into a restless sleep himself with his back against the headboard and his chin resting on his chest. He supposed he’d slept in worse positions over the years, but tell that to his aching neck.

”The only problem is getting to him,” Continued Nick, ignoring MacCready’s show of exhaustion. “The Glowing Sea is no joke.”

His hand faltered and he nearly poked his damn eye out when he heard that. “The... the Glowing Sea? Are you fu-reaking kidding me?”

Nick gave a forbearing shake of his head, taking a deep drag of his cigarette and engulfing them all in smoke. ”I wish I was kid, but we both heard it from Kellogg himself, this Doctor Virgil has taken up refuge somewhere out there. Very clever if you ask me, most people would think twice about following him, perfect place to go into hiding.”

Emma was looking at the two men as though they were speaking in tongues. “Um, am I missing something here? What’s the Glowing Sea?”

MacCready met her eyes, her brows were furrowed in confusion. _Shit_ , she really had no idea of just how dangerous her journey was becoming, hell, it was fast turning into a God damn suicide mission.

”It’s, well... it’s ground zero Em, there’s nothing out there except radiation and death. If your guy’s gone there, he _must_ be desperate.”

She took this in for a moment, nodding her head slowly, before sighing and saying “Well, what’re we waiting for? We need to go there.”

MacCready gaped at her. “Uh, did you not just hear what I said?” He turned to Nick for support.

”MacCready’s right Emma, you don’t just go walking into the Glowing Sea without a plan, the radiation alone could kill you in minutes without proper protection, and that’s before we get to all the creatures that live there. I’m not talking your garden variety bloatfly either, there are creatures living out there that thrive on all the radiation in the air, makes them stronger.”

”But-“

” _Trust me_ , you won’t get far out there if you go in half cocked.”

Emma sighed in frustration at the pair talking her down and threw her cigarette into the ashtray in front of her without even finishing it. “So, what do you suggest Nick?” She asked impatiently. He leaned forward, elbows on the table, rubbing his chin with his metal hand in thought.

”If you can get your hands on a working set of power armour, it should provide enough protection for you to avoid the radiation, plus it’ll help in any fights you find yourself in. Failing that, a hazmat suit might also do the trick.”

Emma’s eyes lit up. “I have power armour back in Sanctuary, it needs some work but I’m sure Sturges can help me fix it up.”

At this, Nick stood up, dusting ash from his raincoat. “Well then, that’s your next step. Get that power armour fixed up, wouldn’t hurt to stock up on rad-x and rad-away too. Once you’re ready, send word my way and we’ll head out together.”

Emma’s expression changed from confidence to worry in about half a second, it might have been funny if it wasn’t so damn sad.

”Together? Nick I... you’ve already done more than enough for me, I couldn’t possibly ask you-“

”You’re not asking, and I’m not looking for permission. I know I may look like an old hunk of junk, but I’m still handy in a fight. Besides, you hired me to help find your son, didn’t you? I’d be a pretty lousy detective if I didn’t see this through.”

Emma stood up from the table and hugged Nick tight, MacCready was willing to bet all the caps in his pocket that if it were possible, he would have flushed as brightly as one of Magnolia’s cocktail dresses.

_What is it about this woman that just makes people want to help her out to no end, at risk to themselves?_

He felt the heat rising in his own face when he realised that included him and suddenly became very preoccupied with looking for his lighter (which was sat on the table in front of him) as Nick straightened up and tipped his hat to her.

”Well, I’d better get back to the office, else Ellie’ll think I’ve been kidnapped again. You take care out there, and _you_ ,” He pointed to MacCready who looked up from his bag feeling as though he was about to be scolded like a naughty kid.

”Make sure she doesn’t get herself killed out there.” Nick finished, MacCready grinned cockily back at him.

”Why’d you think she hired me in the first place, I mean, other than my dashing good looks.”

He shot a cocksure glance over at Emma and was startled to that _she_ was the one who was blushing, looking down at the table with a sheepish smile on her face. Nick raised a bare brow at the pair of them.

”Maybe I should rephrase: Make sure you don’t get _each other_ killed.”

And with that he walked up the stairs of the Third Rail and disappeared. Emma leaned back in her chair and sighed deeply.

”Well, no rest for the wicked, you ready to head out too? If we leave now we should get to Sanctuary by the end of the day.” She said while looking over the map on her pip-boy.

MacCready groaned and threw his head back petulantly as he watched a drifter come into the bar, shaking rainwater off his jacket. “It’s still raining out there though.”

She rolled her eyes as she stood up, fixing him with a pointed glare. “You seriously gonna complain about the weather the whole way there?”

”Maybe, depends how quickly my feet get soaked.”

Emma sighed, then chuckled quietly to herself as she led the way up the stairs. “Over 200 years, and people are _still_ complaining about the weather.” She muttered.

 

* * *

 

There was a reason he complained about the weather: It was fucking awful!

They had been walking for a few hours through the wasteland on their way to Sanctuary, stopping only once to eat a haphazard meal of cram and tatos that Emma had packed for the journey. MacCready’s hands and feet were frozen, his legs were caked in mud and rainwater dripped irritatingly from the tip of his nose, to say he was unhappy was a huge fucking understatement.

”We’re only a couple of hours away or so.” Muttered Emma, he knew that she was just as miserable by the way she huffed impatiently every few minutes, and the way her shoulders were hunched over as she walked, she sure as hell wouldn’t admit it though.

_I could have just let her go on her merry way and stayed in Goodneighbor all warm and dry, but nooo I had to grow attached to the two hundred year old woman with a penchant for making us walk through a damn flood to get somewhere._

By the time the rain had eased off they were walking through Lexington, and it was starting to grow dark.

”Keep a sharp eye out, this place is full of ferals.” Cautioned MacCready, removing his rifle from his back. He heard Emma snort derisively and shot her a look, she glanced up at him with an impish smile.

”Please, there haven’t been ferals here for months, me and Preston cleared them out before I left for Diamond City, he called it ‘target practice’ before I braved the big bad wastes.”

No sooner had the words left her mouth than a shot rang out over their heads. Immediately they both ducked and fled into a nearby alleyway, it was then that MacCready heard rancorous laughter and jeering coming from somewhere up high, followed by more shots peppering the ground where they’d been moments ago.

”What about the raiders?” He asked with a raised brow.

”Yeah, they weren’t here last time,” Emma conceded lightly, drawing her 10mm with a sigh. “And I was gonna set up an outpost here too, fucking pricks.”

”Worry about outposts later, I’m going up top. You circle around the other side of the building where they can’t see you and keep me covered from the ground.”

With a determined nod she turned and skulked soundlessly out of sight. That was another thing he liked about Emma, she knew how to keep quiet when it mattered, unlike countless other people he’d worked with over the years who’d nearly gotten him killed with their loud ass breathing and stomping around.

 _Stay low, stay quiet, stay alive._ That’s what his dad told him when- _No dammit, focus!_

He warily climbed up to the roof of the building they’d been covering behind and crept up to the ledge, settling on his stomach he brought his sights up to his eye and scoured the buildings on the other side of the street where the initial shots had come from, patiently waiting for an opportunity. Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long until...

_One._

The raider had barely popped his head through the window for a second before MacCready blew it off, a grin spreading across his face.

_This shouldn’t take long._

The raiders companion stood up with a strangled cry and aimed wildly in the general direction that his shot had come from, but MacCready may as well have been invisible for all the good it did her.

_Two._

”Sniper!”

A door burst open down on the street and two raiders ran out from it, making a beeline for the building he was shooting from, but they failed to notice the tiny brunette who was crouched down behind a burned out car waiting for them until it was too late, Emma shot confidently and took them both down before they’d gotten halfway across the street. MacCready watched her interestedly as she reloaded her pistol with steady hands, and when she smirked up at him he didn’t even try to fight off the increasingly familiar constricting feeling in his chest. He did, however, give his head a shake when the urge to drop his rifle and rush to her side crossed his mind, and rammed his eye back against his sights.

_I’m screwed. I’m so fucking screwed._

He took out three more raiders that had been hiding up on the rooftops, while Emma dispatched four that had been attempting to cross the street to reach him. Eventually all went quiet, and after waiting an extra ten minutes to ensure that there would be no more surprises, he signalled to her that the coast was clear.

She stood up and stretched out the cramp in her knees, before sauntering over to where the raiders lay dead in the street, and began rifling through their pockets for ammo and caps. MacCready watched her work as he replaced his rifle on his back, her fingers moving deftly, searching for hidden pockets and compartments. She was pretty good with her hands, he wondered if...

_Dammit Mac, she’s your boss. Be a professional!_

Emma was so preoccupied with her looting that she didn’t notice one of the apparently dead raiders roll onto his stomach and make a grab for the knife in her boot.

MacCready wasn’t quick enough in redrawing his rifle, by the time he’d reached an arm behind his back the raider had the knife in his hands. Emma realised too late what was going on and tried to dodge the attack, the blade missed her stomach narrowly, instead being plunged into her thigh. She let out a horrible scream and crumpled to the ground.

”EMMA!”

The raider advanced on her. Still bleeding from his own injuries, he moved clumsily, giving her a chance to fight back. She kicked him hard in the face with her good leg as she dragged herself backwards, out of harms way. It bought enough time for MacCready to line up his shot and end the raider’s miserable life with a well placed bullet to the head. Once he’d dropped dead (for real this time), Emma lay back on the ground, clutching her bleeding leg with one hand and biting down on the other one to keep from screaming again.

”Shit, shit, shit.” He hissed under his breath as he raced down the stairs, two at a time. He slipped over blood, sinew and wet mud in his haste to reach her, dropping to his knees at her side. Her face was white as a sheet and her breaths came in agonised bursts, the knife was still in her leg.

”Em, hey look at me, _look at me_.” He urged, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. She met his eyes, but her gaze was unfocused and she seemed to be fighting not to pass out. MacCready rummaged through his bag and pulled out a spare belt, which he crammed between her teeth and ordered her to bite down on before pulling out a t-shirt, stimpaks, med-x, _anything_ that would help.

”Ok, this may sting a little.” He said as he wrapped his hand around the hilt of the knife, before she could even attempt to protest he’d yanked it out of her leg. Emma’s muffled scream was terrible, she bit down on the belt so hard she could have split it in two. He immediately pressed the t-shirt to her leg to stem the flow of blood and shot her up with at least half a dozen stimpaks, her breathing slowing with each one he injected. Once he was certain that she wouldn’t pass out, he removed the t-shirt, revealing a newly healed but still angry red welt in her skin, the once grey cotton fabric was now covered in dark red splotches.

_There goes my last clean shirt._

He gave her half a dose of med-x to dull the pain, any more and she might fall asleep, and he _really_ didn’t want to have to carry her the rest of the way to Sanctuary. After a few minutes of deep breaths, Emma sat up and poked tenderly at the newly healed skin on her leg.

”It’s not perfect, and I didn’t have any antiseptic,” He admitted with a shrug, the state of some of the scars on his own body could attest to the fact that he was _no_ doctor. “But at least you’re not gonna bleed out in the street, you’re lucky he didn’t hit a main artery.”

Emma nodded in understanding, both of them seemed to be reeling from just how close she’d come to dying. ”Where’d you learn to do this?” She asked quietly.

”I’ve been around,” He replied simply, immediately regretting that response when he saw the corner of her mouth twitch in amusement. “Wait, no I didn’t mean-“ He cut off when she broke into a weak smile, showing off her pretty, pre-war teeth. _Damn_ , what had he been about to say again?

”Well, thank you Mac. You really saved my ass.” She mumbled, looking down at her hands, which were stained red.

”Yeah, let’s not make a habit of it,” He said, falling back into his usual cocky bravado. “You ok to stand? We should get out of here before more raiders turn up.”

Emma held out a hand for MacCready to help her up, and despite the fact that she was still worryingly pale (this from a guy who grew up in a cave), she slung her bag over her shoulder, pocketing the caps she’d looted from the dead raiders, and signalled for him to follow.

By the time they reached Sanctuary, night had long since fallen and Emma was physically struggling with the pain in her leg, though trying to hide the obvious limp. He had jokingly offered to carry her at one point and she’d replied by threatening to snap his arms off, so he’d kept quiet for the rest of the trip. But, once they’d almost crossed the wooden bridge into the tiny settlement, she paused with a shaking hand resting on the rail, her jaw was set tight and she looked ready to drop. MacCready sighed and grabbed her arm, looping it over his shoulders as he helped her to walk the rest of the way, despite her protests.

”This really isn’t necessary, I just needed a moment, I'm fine.” She grumbled, he only laughed at her.

”Please, you looked like you were about to fall backwards into the stream. Now, which one of these,” He nodded to the dilapidated houses that lined the streets. “is yours? You need a strong hit of med-x and some sleep if you’re going to-“

”General!”

They both looked down the street at the source of the voice. A tall man dressed in a brown duster came walking over to them, an impressive looking laser musket in his hands and a concerned frown on his face as he took in the sight of the pair of them, both covered in dirt and (in Emma’s case) blood.

”Damn, what happened? Are you al-“

”I’m _fine_ Preston, really. Just had a run in with some raiders in Lexington, MacCready here helped me take care of it.”

The man called Preston gave MacCready a quick look up and down before continuing. “Raiders in Lexington? They weren’t around last time we were there.”

”Yeah, tell me about it,” She replied a little impatiently, her fingers dig into his shoulder as she struggled to stay balanced on her good leg. “Look, can we do the whole ‘debriefing’ thing in the morning please? I really need some sleep.”

”Of course, sleep well General.” Replied Preston stiffly, shooting MacCready a look that he was fast becoming irritatingly familiar with. He helped Emma to the house that she’d pointed out to him and from there into the bedroom, she lay down on the bed gingerly and kicked off her boots, sucking in shallow breaths through her teeth.

”Ok, I'm gonna give you a full dose of med-x, that should take the worst of the pain away, probably knock you out for the whole night too.” He informed her as he crouched down beside her and rummaged through his bag for the chem. She took in deep breaths through her nose as he injected her, watching him with curiosity. Once she seemed more comfortable he stood up again to leave the room, but was stopped when she grabbed his wrist.

”I never said thank you before.” She murmured.

”Uh, yes you did. Back in Lexington, you sai-“

”No, I mean... Last night at the hotel, what you said to me, and staying with me the whole night I... I don’t how to, I mean it’s more than I can...”

He didn’t know if it was the med-x taking effect or whether she was genuinely struggling to find the right words (that would be a first for the usually oh so eloquent Emma), so MacCready answered her with a lopsided smile and squeezed her hand within his own.

”You’re welcome boss.”

He left the bedroom before hand squeezing became anything more and went back into the living room. He pulled off his coat and threw himself down on an old sofa, removing his hat and running his fingers through his still damp hair.

_I’m in way over my fucking head here._


	5. Friend

Sunlight filtered in through the broken shutters into MacCready’s eyes, waking him from an already uneasy sleep. He opened his eyes, grunting in annoyance, and rolled over on the sofa, where he came face to face with a large robotic eye.

”What the fu-“

”Squatters! Always squatters, I’ve told you time and time again that this homestead is already spoken for. Now off with you!”

The Mister Handy swatted at MacCready with a clawed arm, hitting him painfully on top of the head, much to his chagrin.

”The heck are you doing, you crazy robot?” He snapped as he dodged another claw and leapt up off the sofa. He was about to grab his pistol from the floor when Emma suddenly appeared in the doorway, drawn by the noise.

”Codsworth _enough_ , he’s a guest.” She said sternly. The robot immediately dropped its arms and turned to her.

”Ah miss Emma, you’re back! I thought for sure you’d been chewed up by something terrible out there in the wasteland. Shall I make you your morning coffee?” He chimed politely, as though he hadn’t just tried to bash MacCready’s brains in.

”I haven’t drank coffee since before I fell pregnant,” She replied with an air of annoyance, as though she’d told him this time and time again and it still hadn’t registered with him. “but I think the Longs could use some help with the recruitment beacon, go lend them a hand will you?”

”Very good ma’am.” Codsworth replied courteously before hovering past her, his eye stalk lingering on MacCready as he left. Emma watched him go and shook her head in exasperation as she walked into the house properly, shutting the door behind her.

”Sorry about that, Codsworth’s a little _overprotective_ , but he means well.” She said fondly, walking over to the kitchen table and setting a plate of food down. “I realised you haven’t eaten since yesterday so I brought you some food.”

He groaned hungrily at the brahmin steak on the table which caused Emma to breathe a faint laugh in response, drawing his eyes back to her at the sound. She looked a damn sight better than she had last night. She was still favouring her left leg, but the colour had returned to her cheeks and she had changed out of her bloody and torn clothes, opting for a pair of faded jeans and a tank top that once upon a time might have been black. Her freshly washed hair hung down her back, still damp. _Fuck_ but she was a picture.

”How... how are you feeling?” MacCready asked, feeling his mouth go dry, she shrugged nonchalantly and folded her arms.

”Better than I was, couple days resting up here and I’ll be good as new. I’m gonna head back out and catch up with Preston. You stay here and eat before you wither up and die.”

MacCready was stretching his arms above his head as she spoke, and for a moment he could have swore that he saw Emma’s eyes linger on the scant bit of exposed skin on his hip that appeared when his shirt hitched up.

_Nah, trick of the light._

“You seem awfully keen to get me to eat, not trying to poison me, are you?” He joked, his mouth curling up into a lopsided grin which she returned with her own, albeit sarcastic, one.

”Well, you can hardly watch my back if you’re dying from starvation. Besides, I can’t have people saying I’m a bad boss who doesn’t feed her merc now, can I?” She remarked with a cheeky grin. “Oh, I have a working shower down the hall if you wanna freshen up a little too.”

”Ok _mom_ , jeez, gonna tell me to take my vitamins too?” He sassed, all arrogance disappearing from his face the moment he saw her look down at her feet, a little sheepishly. Then he realised his error.

_Smooth Mac, refer to the woman looking for her missing child as ‘mom,’ real slick._

”Sh- Em, sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” She said a little too quickly, she didn’t meet his eyes as she looked up, but he was sure that he could see wetness in hers. “I’ll catch you later.”

She turned and quickly walked out into the blinding sunlight before he could say anything else. He raised his hands over his face and growled quietly.

”You’re such an idiot.” MacCready scolded. He turned to the plate of food on the table, suddenly not very hungry, but tucked in anyway, if only to give his hands something to do. The guilty knot in his stomach prevented him from eating much, he just couldn’t get Emma’s face out of his head. The attempt at hiding her pain when she told him _’It’s fine.’_ As though she was trying to spare _him_ from feeling bad.

He stood up from the table and looked down at himself, suddenly very self conscious of how much of a mess he was, he was still caked in mud and grime from the road, he hadn’t shaved and he probably didn’t smell all that great either. Well shit, no wonder she’d offered him use of her shower.

He sighed loudly and walked down the hallway to the bathroom. There was a length of fabric hung up in place of a long lost door and MacCready snorted in amusement at the thought of Emma trying to preserve her privacy in what little way she could. Growing up in a cave meant that he never had that luxury, you shared everything with everyone or got nothing at all.

The water was bitterly cold and nipped at his bare skin, but he was used to it. Hot water was an extravagance he’d only known a handful of times in his life. He recalled Emma telling him all about how she used to have hot showers on demand, and there were hundreds of different scented soaps available. (“If you wanted to go around smelling like strawberries and cream, or chocolate brownie, you damn well could!”) For all she’d adapted to the wasteland pretty well in the short time she’d been out of that vault, it was little things like this that reminded him how completely different they both were. She was a polished pre-war beauty, all kindness and smiles. He was a miserable merc with trust issues, a bad attitude and perhaps a minor drinking problem. What could he possibly offer her that could compare to what she’d had? What she’d lost.

He was beginning to come to terms with the fact that he had a thing for his boss and, in all honesty, probably had since the moment she first walked in on his confrontation with Winlock and Barnes back in Goodneighbor. Nothing wrong with that, it’s a perfectly normal reaction to spending a lot of time in close proximity to a beautiful woman. Particularly one with her smooth, mostly unscarred skin, soft dark hair and deep blue eyes, any sane man would look twice her way. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was him.

MacCready had long since made peace with the fact that he was going to be lonely and single for the rest of his miserable life. Losing Lucy the way he did had been too much for him to handle going through a second time, he didn’t want to open himself up to anyone else only to be heartbroken again.

So why the hell was he allowing himself to be swept up by this clueless pre-war woman who had no real fucking clue just how damn hard life was out here?

_Because she’s the only one who seems to give a crap about what happens to me, why else would she drop everything to help free me from the Gunners?_

He suddenly remembered why he hated taking showers so much, too much free time to think. 

 

* * *

 

A while later MacCready exited the bathroom, feeling ten pounds of dirt lighter than before. He left Emma’s house in search of the boss and took the opportunity as he did to have a look around Sanctuary.

As far as settlements went, it wasn’t half bad. Some of the original pre-war houses still stood, patched up in places where the walls had collapsed or ceilings had caved in, it reminded him of Big Town back in the Capital Wasteland, minus the super mutants and slavers. There were a couple of stalls set up on the foundations of a demolished building, selling ammo and other equipment. People were pottering around in the street, some of them building furniture, hanging up lights, others were stood talking away happily to each other. They seemed comfortable and at ease which, in the Commonwealth, was a luxury if ever he saw one.

He found Emma inside an old garage-come-workshop, she was standing alongside a tall man with black hair in front of a pretty beat up old set of power armour.

”I dunno Em, it’s gonna take me a while to get all the parts together that I need to get this thing up and runnin’ again. I mean, the valves here are totally rusted away and those panels are a complete wreck, one good hit and they’ll fall right off. Some of the tools I need are hard to come by as well.”

Emma sighed in frustration, and leaned into a hip. ”However long it takes Sturges, I just _need_ it fixed. Whatever parts you need, I can get them.” She implored, looking over her shoulder when she heard MacCready approaching, her eyes lingering again for a moment on his torso where his t-shirt clung to his still damp chest ( _Ok, I know I saw it that time._ ) before travelling to his face where she gave him a friendly smile in greeting.

”I dunno much about power armour, but whatever you’re looking for can probably be found in old army facilities out in the wastes. I may be able to put in a favour with a few caravans in the area too, get them to bring the tools you need up this way.”

Emma looked like she could have kissed him ( _Damn, I wish she would_ ), she beamed up at him, then looked at Sturges expectantly, her eyes big and pleading. He gave a hearty chuckle.

”Well now, how can I say no to that face? Tell ya what, give me some time to put together a list of everything I need and I’ll get back to you.”

”You’re the best Sturges, really.” She gushed, brushing his arm with her hand as she walked away with MacCready in tow. “So are you for that matter.” She added when they fell in line together, he blinked curiously at her. The best? Him? The guy who, not two hours ago, rendered her upset and teary eyed?

”What did I do to earn such high praise?” He enquired with a sly grin, she rolled her eyes playfully in response and wiped her brow, the heat and blue skies today were a far cry from the torrential rain they had endured yesterday.

”More like what _haven’t_ you done? You helped me take out Kellogg, you saved my ass on numerous occasions and now you’re offering to bring caravans up this far for me. I really don’t know how to thank you for this.” She admitted with sincerity.

He nudged her lightly in the ribs with his elbow. “I think you’re forgetting, you paid me to do all that. Besides, not like you haven’t done plenty for me too without getting any payment in return.”

They walked past a row of crops being tended to by an elderly woman in a turban who eyed him curiously as they passed, something about her gaze made MacCready feel uncomfortable. Emma called out a greeting to her before walking on.

”Still,” She continued. “It means a lot to me that you haven’t run away first chance you got because, honestly, you’re pretty much the closest friend I have out here.”

_Oh... well then._

MacCready didn’t want to be the one to admit that he kind of _had_ debated running out on her the first chance he got. _Fuck_. He’d accepted that their partnership had been transitioning into friendship for a while, but to hear her say it out loud was nonetheless a shock to the system. To be a hired gun with a minor crush on his boss was one thing, but a friend with a minor crush? That had ‘bad news’ written all over it, and then some.

Where’s all this coming from?” He asked, stopping and leaning against the fence that encircled the crops. She turned to him, her cheeks turning pink.

”Nowhere, it’s just, talking to you these past few days has made me realise that... I miss having someone I can rely on, someone I can talk to about my stupid problems, nuclear annihilation doesn’t exactly leave much space for bff’s.” She smirked up at him, but her face fell when she saw the reserved look on MacCready’s face and she blushed even brighter than before. “I’m sorry, that was super forward of me, my problems are probably the last thing you want to hear ab-“

”I know exactly how you feel.” He blurted out before he could stop himself, she looked back up at him, a little confused. Her lips were parted slightly in surprise. He was so tempted to close the gap between them and feel the brush of her mouth against his. He took a deep breath and folded his arms.

”Look, I know I usually tend to come off as super arrogant and act like I want to be alone, but really, nothing could be further from the truth. Being alone scares he heck out of me, and, if we’re both being honest, you’re the only real friend I have out here too which, for a guy in my line of work, is kind of a big deal.”

There was a moments shared silence between the two of them before Emma’s face broke into a small smile, he didn’t think he’d seen anyone smile as much as her since...

_Since Lucy._

”Well, I guess we’re just a couple of lonely losers, aren’t we?” She sighed, prompting him to raise a questioning brow at her.

Uh, I don’t recall ever admitting to being a loser.” He challenged playfully, she scoffed in response.

”Oh please, you’re the biggest loser I know.” She teased. But before he could come up with a suitably snarky response, a voice calling her name drew her attention over to where some settlers were busy putting the finishing touches on a new merchant stall. She shot him one more playful glance and muttered “duty calls,” before striding off to be _General of the Minutemen_ for a while, leaving MacCready leaning with his back against the wooden fence, watching her go with an uncharacteristicly happy smile on his face.

”Your son’s gonna be just fine, kid.”

The voice was so sudden and close to his ear that he nearly jumped out of his skin. He launched himself off of the fence and spun wildly to see the elderly woman that had been staring at him before standing on the other side of he fence in front of him.

”Jesus lady, give a guy a little warning will you?” He gulped while massaging his chest, checking his heart was still functioning normally, before realising what she’d just said. “Wait, what was that about... how do you know about my son?”

Her wide, grey eyes were majorly disturbing, it felt like she was boring a hole right through him. “The sight tells Mama Murphy all sorts. You’ll get that cure Robert, and Emma will help you do it, but you have to trust her. You need to let her heal your broken heart, and you hers in return. Otherwise when the time comes, she won’t be able to talk herself down from the ledge a second time.”

”Talk hersel- what’re you... what do you mean? Is Emma in danger?” He asked urgently, placing his hands desperately on the woman’s shoulders, she continued to stare at him with those glassy eyes, a vague smile on her face.

”Not if what the sight tells me about you is right, you’ll keep her safe kid.”

_What the actual fuck?!_

He’d heard about people who claimed to be able to see the future when they were high enough, and like everyone else, he’d assumed it was all bullshit. But, how the hell could this woman know anything about Duncan? Even Emma didn’t know about him.

_She said Emma would help me, that I need to trust her._

That was the question: _Did_ he trust her? She’d never given him a reason not to, but, in MacCready’s experience he found that it was always safer to assume that everyone was out to get you.

But c’mon, this was _Emma_ , who’d cut the fingers off of a pair of gloves for him so that he could keep his hands warm and still grip his rifle. Who’d annoyingly comb over every inch of a room in search of loot, but always make sure to look for ammo for his gun while she was at it. If he was going to trust anyone, why not her?

MacCready looked over to where she was trying to fix a sign in place above the newly christened _General Goods_ stall, she was talking and laughing happily with the settlers assisting her, the sound had his heart doing tricks that he’d long thought it incapable of doing anymore. When the sign tumbled to the floor despite her best efforts, she sighed good naturedly and looked over her shoulder at MacCready.

”Hey, can you help me?”

He grinned cockily and walked over to her. Maybe he couldn’t open his heart to her right now, but yeah, he supposed he could trust her.

”I aim to please.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that this chapter is a little shorter and more devoid of action than the others, I felt like I needed to give poor Mac five minutes to try and figure out what’s going on in that head of his.
> 
> Rest assured, the next chapter will prove much more fun to read!
> 
> Thanks for reading guys! ^.^


	6. Nimble

MacCready had to admit, if the day ever came where he decided to hang up his rifle for good and settle down anywhere, Sanctuary would be a good place to do it.

It had been a few weeks since they’d arrived, and in that time he had helped build two new water pumps, hooked up lights in most of the houses and even started on a couple of guard posts. It was hard work that took most of the day even with others helping out, but he enjoyed it. There was something incredibly rewarding about using his hands to build something for a change instead of using them to take away.

Emma seemed to be enjoying herself too, he didn’t think he’d ever seen someone laugh or smile as much as she did in that week as she helped the settlers make their home in this quiet little corner of the Commonwealth. At night, while everyone was gathered around the fire eating and drinking, she and Sturges would hook up a jukebox they’d fixed up and play music from an old stash of holo-disks that had survived for over two hundred years in a safe under her bed. MacCready had been pleasantly surprised to find out that, like him, she was a huge fan of rock music.

”Don’t get me wrong, Diamond City Radio is great and all but man, Travis _needs_ to mix it up a little. There’s only so many times I can listen to ‘The Wanderer’ before I want to wander over to his trailer and slap seven shades of shit out of him.” She’d explained, positively howling when MacCready choked on his food in response to her intimidating remark. He’d joined in the laughter once he was certain he wouldn’t choke to death, and filed that perfect threat away for later.

_Maybe I could get used to living like this._

Then, of course, reality in the form of Preston Garvey came crashing down on them both, hat and all.

”General, I’ve received word of a settlement in need of our help.”

Sturges had been teaching Emma how to disarm a turret (which MacCready had insisted upon after the whole mirelurk debacle), when Preston approached them with the news. MacCready knew that the guy meant well, Emma had told him all about how hard he’d been working to keep the minutemen afloat after Quincy, but _damn_ , he really knew how to kill the fun sometimes.

”The Slog have sent word that raiders have been initiating attacks on them for the past few days now, they need immediate assistance.”

”Emma closed her eyes, threw her head back and groaned in exasperation. “Fucking assholes.” She then sighed and nodded her head. “Leave it to me Preston, I’ve got this.” She turned to MacCready who was busy at the workbench cleaning his rifle, he looked back at her expectantly. “You up for a little field trip Mac?”

”You lead, I’ll follow boss.” He responded with a wink, feeling some strange satisfaction when she briefly glanced down at the ground with a coy smile. Sturges and Preston exchanged a look, and a grin. He was fast learning to ignore them whenever they did this, which was often.

”Just, watch yourselves out there. Wiseman says these raiders are damn crazy.” Preston cautioned them both.

”Crazy raiders, never seen any of those before,” Emma replied dryly. She gave both Preston and Sturges a two-finger salute before turning to walk back to her house, whistling for Dogmeat as she went, the faithful hound trotted obediently over to her side. MacCready finished putting his rifle back together and slung it over his shoulder.

”Don’t worry guys, I’ll get her there and back in one piece.” He said with a brash smirk, Preston nodded to him and walked away, whereas Sturges only chuckled and went back to working on the turret.

An hour or so later MacCready was stood on the bridge waiting impatiently for Emma, who’d insisted on taking a shower before she left. As much as he’d enjoyed his brief vacation, he was itching to get back out on the road and shoot something. He watched her leave her house and walk over to have a last minute chat with Sturges where she accepted a piece of paper from him and pulled him into a bone crushing hug. After that, she started making her way towards where MacCready was waiting, but before she could get very far, Mama Murphy called her over, looking a little harassed. Emma shot an apologetic look over at him and held up a finger as she walked over to where Mama Murphy was stood.

They talked quietly for a few minutes. At one point, Emma shot a look over in his direction, his brow furrowed in confusion but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Eventually, Emma placed a comforting hand on Mama Murphy’s shoulder and said a word in parting before finally walking over to MacCready. Whatever she’d been told had left her unsettled, there was that telltale crease between her brows and she was chewing her bottom lip fervently.

”You alright?” He asked with mild concern.

She waved a dismissive hand at him. “Yeah, sure. Mama Murphy’s been on the chem’s again.” She said distractedly, cocking her head in the direction of the other side of the bridge. “C’mon, let’s go.”

”Um, I think you’re forgetting something.” MacCready replied nodding to her feet, Emma looked down to see Dogmeat stood at her heels, tail wagging and ears raised eagerly.

”Oh, baby boy,” she crooned, kneeling down to scratch behind his ears. “Not this time buddy, you go keep Preston company, he’ll need all the help he can get while I’m gone.”

She kissed the top of his head and stood up as Dogmeat darted off towards where Preston stood by one of the newly built guard posts, she smiled sadly as he left. “I hate sending him away, he kept me safe the whole time I was out looking for Nick. Makes me feel like a terrible master.”

”So you should! Poor Dogmeat, being left alone with Preston, little guy’ll be bored to tears by the end of the day.” He teased as they started walking away from the quiet of Sanctuary. Emma clucked her tongue, pulling a face that didn’t quite hide her amusement, and walked on ahead, throwing a middle finger up at him as she went.

 

* * *

 

It was early evening by the time they arrived at The Slog. MacCready didn’t expect much from a place with a name like that, but was pleasantly surprised with what he found. The settlement was built around an old pre-war swimming pool. The large communal changing area being used as sleep and living quarters with an old cafeteria acting as their food vendor. The pool itself was filled part ways with water, and chock-full of tarberries, he didn’t think he’d ever seen so many in his whole life. Emma explained that The Slog was the largest producer of the rare fruit as a tall, pale ghoul approached them and shook her hand.

”General, thank you for coming on such short notice.” He said formally.

”Don’t worry Wiseman, we’re here to help. Now, tell me which direction I’m shooting in.” She replied briskly, Wiseman chuckled roughly in reply.

”I’m glad someone’s eager to get close to these bastards. The raider’s are coming from the old Dunwich Borers site, know of it?”

She huffed out an amused breath through her nose ”May’ve driven past it once or twice before, an old quarry, right? How many are there?”

”We don’t know exactly, their numbers vary with each attack, sometimes five, other times as many as fifteen, the attacks are very unorganised. They seem, I dunno, _crazier_ than your usual psycho-filled nut jobs. They’ve caused a lot of damage and a few injuries, last night when they attacked, we doused the lights to try an’ confuse them, ghouls can see pretty well in the dark y’see, so we thought we could work it to our advantage. But as soon as the lights turned off they freaked the fuck out, started babbling an’ shrieking in terror, ran away soon after.”

Emma and MacCready exchanged a confused glance, then turned back to Wiseman.

”Ok,” Emma nodded, suddenly serious. “Take your people and get inside for the night, keep your guns handy. We’ll go on to Dunwich Borers and take them out.”

Despite his height and stature, not to mention his general intimidating appearance, Wiseman’s shoulders slumped with relief. “Thank you general, really, thank you. I dunno how we’ll ever repay you.”

She smiled warmly and shook his hand once more, resting the other kindly on his shoulder. “Just look out for each other, that’s all I ask.”

 

* * *

 

 

They approached the site cautiously, using the cover of darkness and what little vegetation there was to avoid drawing attention to themselves. MacCready pulled out his binoculars and lay flat on his stomach by the ledge, peering into the quarry below to get an idea of exactly how outnumbered they were, he whistled quietly at the sight.

”Long way down,” he muttered. “I see some stairs over on that side, but they’re pretty steep and narrow, fighting our way down is probably out of the question.”

Emma lay down beside him and took the binoculars from his hands to scan the area for herself. “I count six raiders down there, two up on that ledge, there’s another by the top of the stairs and... oh _great_ ,” She muttered derisively. “Guy in power armour over there, no helmet on though, so there’s a plus.”

”Oh, well that’s just perfect.” He huffed, squinting through the darkness over to where the hulking raider stood, he could see the metal armour shining in the moonlight.

She handed the binoculars back to him and sighed, running her fingers through her hair like she always did when she was getting frustrated. “Ok, here’s the plan. You take out the guys down there, I’ll circle around and take out the ones up here.”

”What about the tin man?” He asked as he attached a shiny new silencer to his rifle that he’d been itching to try out. She shot him a roguish grin and got to her knees. “Best thing about being small: No one sees you coming.” She winked at him and skulked silently off into the shadows, reappearing a few moments later behind the power armour-clad raider. MacCready felt his heart seize up at the sight of her creeping up behind him, she looked so tiny and fragile.

He continued to watch as she got up close and carefully ejected the fusion core from the back of the power armour without him noticing, before standing upright. His heart practically attempted an emergency exit via his throat when she hopped up onto the raiders back and plunged her knife into his exposed neck before he could react. He fell to the floor with a surprisingly quiet _thump_ and she disappeared back into the shadows without so much as a peep.

_What was that about fragile?_

MacCready lay there, slack jawed for a full minute before he remembered he was supposed to be clearing out the raiders down in the quarry. He gave his head a shake and lined up his shots. Most of the raiders were either asleep, or stood in blind spots where they couldn’t protect or be protected.

_C’mon, give me a challenge._

Within five minutes, all of the raiders below were dead, the ones he couldn’t see clearly before having been forced out into the open once their friends had started dropping like flies. MacCready heard a choked gargling from a small hut at the top of the stairs and knew that Emma had just taken out another one. She reappeared moments later and wiped her blade clean on a rag, looking awfully smug.

”Where the heck did you learn to do _that_? He gawked, gesturing to the fusion core that she was stuffing into her pack. She gave him a self satisfied smile and laughed breathlessly, her eyes were wild with adrenaline.

”I had a bit of a rebellious phase when I was in my teens, used to shoplift quite a lot, never got caught once. You’re looking at the most nimble hands in the Commonwealth.” She held up her hands to him and wiggled her fingers. MacCready wanted to be cheeky and ask her to prove just how nimble they were, but at that moment she looked over the side of the ledge and her mouth dropped open.

”Holy shit Mac, you don’t mess around.” She approved quietly as she examined the chaos below. He gave her a lopsided grin as he got to his feet.

”You’re looking at the best shot in the Commonwealth.” He remarked, mimicking her own comment. The way Emma regarded him in that moment, with a mixture of amusement and admiration on her face, _damn_ , that was something else entirely.

They moved out of the bushes they’d been covering in and began their descent into the quarry. Halfway down the stairs, a lone raider appeared from a door that led further into the site and, upon realising everyone outside was dead, began firing on them, screaming incoherently. In his haste to dodge a hail of bullets being fired in their direction, MacCready jumped back and leaned against the old wooden bannister, snapping it in two with his weight. It was only Emma grabbing his arm and yanking him away from the ledge that prevented him from falling to his death.

”Damn, if you wanted to get away from me so bad you only had to say.” She said as she lobbed a grenade in the direction of the raider, they both turned their heads away at the resounding explosion, looking back moments later to see pieces of said raider scattered below. They looked back at each other and laughed nervously.

”Please, you wouldn’t last five minutes without me by your side.” MacCready scoffed as they continued down the stairs, making sure to stay well away from the bannister, which was missing entirely in some places.

”Health and Safety would have a field day in this place,” Emma muttered as the steps groaned weakly under their feet. “Hope you’ve got your hard hat.”

The inside of the quarry was narrow and dark, with only a few lights strung up around the walls to light the way. Every step they took echoed off the walls and high ceilings, giving MacCready the unshakable feeling that they were being followed, despite the fact that he checked periodically to make sure they were alone.

They found a few more raiders lurking within the tunnels, Wiseman wasn’t kidding when he said they were crazier than usual, they moved erratically, half of their shots going so wide that MacCready was starting to wonder if they were even the intended targets. One of them in particular simply refused to go down, and he emptied three quarters of a magazine into her before she finally stopped moving. Emma took the liberty of aiming a few good kicks in her direction while sporting a newly bleeding brow, curtesy of an elbow to the face which she refused to let MacCready look at, insisting that it was _‘just a flesh wound.’_

They journeyed further into the caverns, the tunnels growing steadily narrower and darker as they went. In one of the lower chambers, Emma stumbled upon a terminal full of diary entries belonging to the raiders, most of them full of the usual _’I’m the best at killing things’_ kind of crap, but one of them...

”Mac, take a look at this.” She muttered uncertainly. He looked over her shoulder to see a screen chock full of nothing but the words _’I’m safe in the light.’_ Poetic.

”Well, not like they were stuck in a dark, creepy cave where there’s very little light or something.” He joked, trying to mask how fucking freaked out he was becoming. She gave him a look that was somewhere between fear and amusement before the latter was wiped from her face entirely by the sound of footsteps right behind them.

They both spun around, weapons in hand, looking for the source of the noise, but there was no one there. They exchanged nervous glances and realised that they were grasping each others arms in fright.

”I’m not going crazy, you heard that too, right?” She breathed, her face pale. MacCready could only imagine how his own face looked.

”Oh you’re absolutely crazy, but yeah, I heard it.” He confirmed, trying to keep the wobble of fear out of his voice only for it to come out as some sort of choking sound.

Emma took a steadying breath and walked over to where a rotting, makeshift door led deeper into the tunnels, MacCready watched her with wide eyes.

”Are you fu-freaking kidding me boss? We’re seriously gonna continue deeper into this place.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, looking annoyed. “Look, I don’t want go in further anymore than you do. But if there’re still raiders down here we _have_ to get rid of them, else they’ll just keep on attacking The Slog. I’m not gonna be responsible for them dying just ‘cause I’m a little bit scared.”

Well, that put him in his place. He felt his cheeks burning as she stared him down, all five feet of her. He sighed and reluctantly held out an arm, gesturing to her to lead the way, which she herself did a little unenthusiastically, turning to the door and cautiously flinging it open.

The first thing they noticed was that it was pitch black beyond the door, Emma used the torch on her pip-boy to light the way, the green light casting eerie shadows up against the walls that made MacCready flinch whenever she moved her arm suddenly. They were both relieved to eventually come across a light box a short while later, she flipped the switch, dousing them in blessed light just long enough for them to catch a glimpse of the ferals up ahead before the electrics failed and they were plunged into near darkness again. Unfortunately for them, the ferals had already spotted them.

”Shit, _shit!_ This isn’t the time for faulty electrics!” Emma hissed in a panic as she flipped the switch a second time. The lights came on again, flickering weakly, but working long enough for them to deal with the horde before a rumble deep within the tunnels cut them off again. Normally about now, MacCready would have made some comment about how this mission was becoming too dangerous to continue, but he feared that Emma would chew his head off for doing so. So he remained tight lipped, readjusted his grip on his rifle and followed the boss.

The footsteps they’d heard at the tunnel entrance continued to haunt them as they made their way deeper and deeper. Once or twice he caught Emma glancing over her shoulder, her jaw set tight with nerves, but she said nothing about it.

_This place isn’t right, and normally I would be the last person to complain about being stuck in a cave._

”It’s like a maze down here.” Emma muttered as they approached yet another door, placed haphazardly in the middle of the tunnels, her voice echoing around them. She grabbed the handle and threw it open. What happened next would haunt MacCready for the rest of his life.

Out of nowhere, there was a blinding flash of light. He put his hand up to shield his eyes, and realised that his surroundings had changed somewhat. He was stood in the same tunnel, but it looked... different. More intact. His hearing went strange too, like he’d been plunged underwater. But he could definitely hear footsteps all around him. Emma was nowhere to be seen. He called out to her and heard some vague response that may or may not have come from her.

_What the fuck is going on?!_

He was starting to panic a little, so he huffed out a deep breath and rushed through the door in front of him. All at once everything returned to normal, his surroundings, his hearing, but Emma was still nowhere to be seen. In her place stood half a dozen feral ghouls.

He yelped in fright as they lunged at him, stumbling backwards out of their reach, and took them out with more bullets than perhaps necessary, he could feel his heart thumping madly in his chest. After the last echoes of gunfire had finally faded away he looked around, hoping that Emma might have reappeared, but there was no sign of her, he called out to her again, and received no answer.

”Where are you?” He muttered to himself, he would have loved nothing more than to turn heel and run out of there as fast as his legs could go, but he couldn’t leave her behind in this place, so he swallowed his fear with some difficulty and carried on deeper into the tunnels.

He ventured on for what seemed like an age, finding plenty of ghouls in the caves, but no Emma. Twice, he thought (no, he _knew_ ) he’d spotted her walking through the tunnel ahead of him, but when he followed her he found only dead ends.

”Girl owes me about ten drinks when I find her.” He grumbled, trying to keep himself from panicking. He was trying to convince himself that this was just one huge prank, that Emma was hiding around the next corner waiting to jump out and scare him out of his pants. But, this wasn’t like her, she wouldn’t just up and ditch him like this. Not here.

_Where is she?_

Eventually MacCready found himself down in the very bottom of the cavern. More ferals awaited him there, stumbling over rubble and centuries old discarded equipment as he mowed them down. He followed a narrow tunnel that led away into a smaller chamber, this one darker and narrower than any of the others. Then it happened again.

Another blinding flash, vision, hearing, footsteps. But this time he could see people, none of them Emma. They didn’t look like raiders either, they were dressed in fine pre-war attire and were bound and gagged, kneeling around some sort of alter, where a man in robes stood holding up a jagged blade.

”Hey!” He shouted, but none of them payed him any attention, it was as though he wasn’t there. He took another step forward and, like last time, everything returned to normal, except for the ferals that were surrounding Emma who was standing with her back to him.

His blood ran cold. For a moment he was back in the metro station, and all he could see was Lucy, screaming in agony as she was torn apart in front of him.

_No, no not again. Please, not again!_

He could hear Duncan crying in his arms as he ran, felt the burning despair in the pit of his stomach.

_She’s gone, she’s gone. I failed her._

“You’re the closest friend I have.” That’s what Lucy had said to him.

_No, not Lucy, Lucy’s dead._

__

But Emma wasn’t. It wasn’t too late yet, he could still save her.

__

MacCready dragged himself back to the present and shouted to get the attention of the ferals as he lined up his shots, he refused to lose someone else he cared for like this. After a few successful hits, the ones that were left turned their attentions from Emma to him. Again, he fired more bullets than he probably needed to, but he didn’t care, they needed to be dead, he _had_ to protect her. Screw his reservations, his fear of getting close, it was a bit late for that now. She’d latched onto his heart with those nimble fingers of hers and didn’t seem to be letting go any time soon.

__

Emma didn’t move once as he took out the ferals. At first MacCready was annoyed by her lack of assistance, but she didn’t so much as look at him as he fought them away, leading him to the crazy thought that perhaps she was literally frozen in fear. Once the coast was clear he flung his rifle over his back and rushed to her side.

__

”Em what the heck? What happened? Where did you-”

__

His voice was cut off when he saw her face. Her eyes were open, but she didn’t seem to register the fact that he was there. They looked glassy, her pupils blown, drowning out the deep blue almost entirely, and her brows were furrowed slightly as though she was trying to concentrate. She was staring down into the pool in front of them, he followed her gaze and saw... bodies, lots of them in varying stages of decomposition. He cried out in shock and dragged her away from the waters edge as she started to teeter forwards, continuing to half pull-half carry her out into the larger section of the cavern where he backed her up against the wall and took her face in his hands.

”Em, c’mon look at me. _Emma!_ ” He urged, barely able to keep the fear out of his voice. There was a terrifying moments pause before her pupils slowly began to shrink back to their normal size. She took a deep, shuddering breath, looking wildly around the cavern before her eyes finally landed on him.

__

”MacCready? W-what the fuck?” She breathed. She started to tremble and her eyes shone with tears, the wound on her brow had reopened and a small trail of blood ran down the side of her face.

__

”It’s ok, it’s ok, you’re fine. What happened?” He asked, wiping blood away from her cheekbone with his thumb. She looked away, eyes narrowed as she tried to think.

__

”I dunno, I remember being with you, I opened that door and then... _I dunno_ , everything just went crazy. You disappeared and I couldn’t find you. I went into that chamber thinking I saw you go in, then I looked into that pool and... I heard voices, telling me to jump in. I don’t know what came over me, but I was about to do it when you...”

__

Emma closed her eyes and let out a dry sob, before taking a step towards MacCready, surprising him as she rested her head against his chest. After a moments hesitation he wrapped his arms protectively around her, holding her close while she calmed down. He pressed a light kiss to the top of her head and rested his cheek there. Her hands clung desperately to the front of his duster and he couldn’t help but think that if they were anywhere other than a creepy as hell cave, he might have enjoyed this brief moment of intimacy, but another rumble within the cavern startled them both into breaking apart.

__

”We need to get outta here, _now_ would be good.” He urged, grabbing her hand and leading the way back out of the cavern. The journey back to the surface was much quicker without the constant interruptions from ghouls, raiders and freaky visions, still, MacCready didn’t let go of Emma’s hand until he could see The Slog back on the horizon.

__

Before they got there, Emma made him promise not to tell anyone what they saw down there, and MacCready was more than fucking happy to agree. He didn’t want to think about how close he’d come to losing her, one thing was certain however, he was never letting her out of his sight again.

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that this chapter makes up for the lack of action in the last one. If not then... I’m doing my best!! D:
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has read the story so far and given me kudos, it really puts a smile on my face and honestly, any feedback is greatly appreciated!


	7. Let me help you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MacCready and Emma plan a recovery mission and get drunk again!
> 
> There’s a little nod to the 2016 movie _Deadpool_ in this chapter. Can you find it? ;)

The neon signs outside of Goodneighbor were a welcome sight, despite the likelihood of you being shot, stabbed or both rising drastically the moment you walked through the door. Emma and MacCready left The Slog after a very brief stop to rest up. They informed Wiseman that the raider problem had been taken care of and that the settlers ought to stay away from Dunwich Borers due to the site being ‘unstable’ (“That’s putting it lightly.” MacCready had joked). Wiseman accepted this excuse without question and sent them on their way with some caps and a large bundle of tarberries as a thank you, which the pair had been snacking on for most of the trip back to Goodneighbor.

”I’m heading straight to the hotel to freshen up, then it’s drinks on Wiseman.” Emma chatted happily, holding up a pouch full of caps. She hadn’t spoken a word about what had happened down in the quarry since they’d left, though MacCready couldn’t help but notice that she barely slept a wink back at The Slog, and when she did finally drop off she’d started thrashing about frantically, resulting in him having to hold her still until she woke up and apologised sheepishly, neither of them went back to sleep again after that.

”Sounds good to me, uh, book me a room too will ya? I’ll follow in a minute.” Replied MacCready, drumming his fingers against his leg distractedly, Emma turned to him with a frown.

”Everything alright? You seem a little antsy.” She said, glancing down at his fidgeting hands.

”Yeah, ‘course it is, I just need to have a word with Daisy real quick. Now, go clean that dirt off your face.” He said with a cheeky grin, Emma's brows rose up in amusement and she laughed dryly at him.

”Says the guy with tarberry around his mouth.” She shot back as she began to walk away. MacCready wiped his mouth with the back of his hand whilst trying to conceal a smirk and watched her go until she rounded the corner and disappeared, then he turned and wandered over to Daisy’s store. She looked up from the cash register when he approached and her face broke into a wide smile.

”Well look who’s here, I thought you’d forgotten all about me.” Crooned Daisy when he approached the shop.

”Aw, now how could anyone forget about a pretty little thing like you Dais?” Replied MacCready with what he thought was a charming smile as he leaned across the counter to give her a hug.

”Pft, save your smooth talk for your vault dweller Robert, I know why your here.” She reached into a drawer behind the counter and produced two letters. “Here you go, one arrived last week on the regular caravan, the other one was delivered two days ago by some shady looking character in a mask. Not off working with those Gunners again are you?” She asked, her tone was caring, but her eyes narrowed suspiciously as he took the letters from her.

”You know I don’t do that anymore,” MacCready answered a little too harshly, before remembering himself. “Thanks as always Dais, I appreciate it.”

He nodded to her and walked off down the narrow street, looking at the two letters in his hands. He recognised Duncan’s untidy scrawl on the first letter, but the second...

He quickened his pace and made straight for the Rexford. Clair called out a room number to him as he passed and he grunted a quick “thank you,” tackling the steps two at a time, not stopping until he’d reached his room. He slammed the door shut behind him, crossed the room and sat down on the sunken mattress before tearing open the letter.

_‘MacCready, Jackson didn’t make it. . . Got the access codes. . . Hope you make it. . . Your son. . . Ferals everywhere. . . Good luck.’_

He barely registered half of what the note said, his heart was thumping painfully in his chest and his hands were shaking. This was it, Duncan’s fighting chance. He blinked back tears and stuffed the letter in his coat pocket before standing up again, and began frantically pacing the room in thought.

_If I leave right now I could be back by morning, get it on the next caravan to the Capital. But those damn ferals, I don’t know if I can take them all out by myself._

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

”MacCready?” Emma called out. He didn’t move, or answer her call, he just stared at the door and thought about his options.

_Would she help me if I asked her? No. I’ve already asked for her help once, I have no right to ask for anything else from her. Besides, she has more than enough problems of her own, no reason for me to add to them._

Emma knocked again, a little more urgently. “Mac, c’mon I know you’re in there.” She insisted. He sighed and rubbed his face in exasperation before opening the door.

”Hey Em, what’s up?” He asked a little too casually. She looked up at him carefully, her brows furrowed in uncertainty.

”Are you alright? I heard you come storming down the corridor and slam the door behind you, I thought there was something wrong.”

She looked purposefully into his eyes as she spoke, one of her old ‘trainee lawyer’ tricks he knew she did when she was trying to get information out of someone.

_’Eyes don’t lie MacCready, you just have to look hard enough and you’ll see the truth behind them.’_

”I’m fine. I just, uh, really wanted to take a shower.” He lied, looking down at his feet as he spoke. He knew it was a lame lie the moment it left his mouth, and clearly Emma thought so too, because she gave a small sigh and placed a hand on his arm which was folded over his chest.

”Okay,” she said softly, prompting him to look in her eyes at just how gentle her voice sounded. That was a mistake, he was practically putty in her hands from that moment. “I won’t force you to tell me anything you don’t want to. But please remember, I’m on your side MacCready, if there’s something you need then tell me and I’ll help you, no matter what it is.”

_Damn, she’s good._

MacCready sighed, defeated, and pulled out one of the letters from his coat, holding it up for her to see.

”Look, what I’m about to tell you... I don’t really open up a lot, so not many people know this about me. I have a son.”

Whatever Emma had been expecting, it clearly wasn’t that, because her eyebrows rose up and her lips parted in surprise. “Really? Wow, I had no idea, how old is he? What’s his name?”

”Duncan, he’s four years old, he’ll be five in August.” He swallowed hard and looked away as the words _’if he makes it’_ came to mind. It didn’t bare thinking about.

“But he’s sick Em, I dunno what’s wrong with him. One day he’s outside playing in the fields, the next he comes down with this terrible fever, and these blue boils pop up all over his body. I’ve taken him to every damn doctor in the Capital Wasteland, but no one knows what’s wrong with him, and truthfully... I don’t know how much longer he’s going to last. That’s the whole reason I came to the Commonwealth, I’ve been trying to find a cure for months.”

He paused and took a deep breath, he didn’t dare look at Emma, or else he would definitely fall to pieces. He held the letter tight in his hands like a lifeline.

”But, recently I made contact with a guy whose partner fell ill, thought he was just wasting my time at first, until he mentioned blue boils and a burning fever. He told me that the old Med-Tek facility was working on a cure before the war, and that the place had been in lockdown ever since with a possible cure still inside.” He handed over the letter for her to read. “His partner didn’t make it, but he sent me the access codes so that I can try and get in there myself, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

Emma had listened patiently to everything he said, she read over the letter silently for a minute before handing it back with a determined look on her face.

”Well then, let’s go get that cure.”

It was MacCready’s turn for his mouth to fall open in surprise.

”I... No, Emma I can’t ask you to do this for me after everything with the Gunners, you’ve got enou-“

”You’re not asking me anything. I’m _telling_ you that I’m going to do everything I can to help make sure your son gets that cure and I’m not taking no for an answer. Let me help you.”

MacCready just stared at her, completely lost for words. Never in his whole life had he known anyone to care so damn much about someone they’d never met, let alone a kid. It touched him more than words could say, so he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a hug.

”Thank you, your helping me give my son a fighting chance, I honestly can’t tell you what this means to me.” He mumbled into her hair, Emma stood on her tiptoes to reciprocate the embrace.

”Just knowing that your little boy is safe and happy is all I need, really.” She replied as they broke apart. She then suddenly cleared her throat and looked away, she looked almost... uncomfortable. “So, uh, I guess he’s with his mom right now huh?” She asked, MacCready looked down at his feet again when he felt an all too familiar pain in his chest.

_Shit, not now. Not this._

”Actually, he’s living with friends while I’m here, his mom... she died. Few years back.” The words tasted bitter on his tongue, like he was dishonouring Lucy’s memory with that meagre explanation, but he couldn’t go into it right now, he wasn’t ready. Emma’s expression changed from uncomfortable, to downright horrified.

”Oh my God Mac, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up, I’m so stupid!”

”Don’t worry about it,” he shrugged offhandedly, trying to get away from this increasingly awkward situation. “Tell you what, let’s spend the night here, get some actual sleep (He couldn’t help but notice the dark circles under her eyes that only grew the longer they were out on the road), and then we’ll head out first thing in the morning.”

Emma nodded her head and made to walk away before she stopped and reached into her pocket. “Here,” she said, tossing him the pouch full of caps that Wiseman had given them. “Get me a drink when you get to the rail, I’ll be down soon.”

She retreated to her room and shut the door behind her, leaving MacCready alone to wonder if this was all some big wonderful dream that he was going to wake up from at any moment. After months of searching he was finally going to get his hands on Duncan’s cure, and despite the fact that her own son was currently in the clutches of the Commonwealth’s boogeyman, Emma was insisting on going with him, to make sure his boy had a chance to grow up healthy. He was so full of disbelief it hurt. His eyes lingered on the door to her room and he found himself repeating the words he’d thought so many weeks ago when she’d cried herself to sleep in his arms.

”This world doesn’t deserve someone as good as you.” He muttered before shutting the door to his own room.

 

* * *

 

The Third Rail was lively as ever when MacCready arrived, he slid a few caps over to Charlie for a couple of drinks and took them over to their regular table. He’d barely sat down when Hancock approached him and took a seat across from him.

”Well look who’s returned, your fair lady kicked your ass to the dirt? Do I need to clear out the VIP lounge again?”

MacCready took a long drink of his whiskey before replying, grimacing as the liquor burned his throat on the way down. “Do you actually do any work around here, or is all your energy spent drinking and getting high?” He shot back with a raised brow. “And for your information Emma’s at the hotel cleaning herself up, she’ll be here soon.”

”Cleaning herself up eh?” He grinned mischievously, MacCready made a face.

”Dude, that’s not even remotely what I meant, get your head out of the gutter.”

”Ah, relax kid I’m just playin’ with ya.” replied Hancock with a chuckle as he settled back in his chair and pulled out a tin of mentats from his pocket. He offered one to MacCready who declined, before shrugging and popping a couple in his mouth. They shared a few minutes silence while Magnolia serenaded the patrons with some slow love song that he’d heard her sing many times before, about a person attempting to fight against their feelings for someone else and failing miserably. He tried very hard to ignore how much the words were speaking to him right now by burying his face in his glass.

”Heh, I know that look anywhere, love sucks, doesn’t it?” Remarked Hancock as MacCready slammed his glass down on the table.

”Gee, I didn’t take you for a relationship counsellor, Hancock,” He answered snarkily. “Tell me, how’s _your_ love life?”

Hancock raised a bare brow and huffed out an amused breath through his nose. “Damn, you’re annoying as hell when you’re in denial, you know that?”

That got a reluctant smile out of MacCready. “I’ll drink to that,” He sighed deep and rubbed the back of his neck. “Look, you’re my friend an’ all... what the heck am I doing?” He asked seriously, Hancock stared at him for a moment, if he was going to mock him, he sure changed his mind when he saw the look on MacCready’s face.

“You’re doing what’s natural kid, you’re fuckin’ twenty two an’ spending every day with a young, beautiful woman who, in my _professional_ opinion, is just as interested in you as you are in her. Sparks are bound to fly, ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.”

MacCready scoffed loudly and looked away in annoyance. “Interested in me? C’mon, be serious here.”

Hancock’s eyes flickered over to the stairs and another grin flashed across his face as he looked back at MacCready.

”You can scoff all you want, but trust me, most women don’t turn up to a bar dressed like _that_ if they’re not even the slightest bit interested.” He replied, gesturing over to the stairs, MacCready twisted in his seat to get a look at what Hancock was talking about. His jaw hit the floor.

Emma was descending the stairs looking, well, _beautiful._ She’d changed out of her road leathers into a simple black dress paired with her combat boots, her hair had been released from its braid and the soft waves it created fell loosely down her back, she was also wearing makeup, something very few women did in the Commonwealth, or anywhere else for that matter. MacCready’s eyes lingered on the new scar on her left leg from where she’d been stabbed in Lexington that stood out in stark contrast to her pale legs, he couldn’t help but find it kind of sexy. She caught sight of him and her deep red lips curled up into a smile as she made her way over to him.

”You trying to catch bloatflies?” She enquired when she approached the table, MacCready closed his mouth and looked away, taking stock of himself.

”Sorry, you just, uh, you look nice. Drink?” He answered, stumbling over his words as he attempted to regain his composure.

For a brief moment she looked taken aback by his outstretched arm holding a glass of bourbon, but it quickly turned into another smile as she accepted the glass and dropped down into a chair next to him. Hancock chuckled roughly.

”Bloatflies are the least o’this kids concerns right now (MacCready shot him a threatening glare). Hey Emma, lookin’ beautiful as ever.” He complimented with a wink, Emma laughed as she took a sip.

”Charming as always Hancock. How’s mayor life treating you lately?”

”Heh, the usual, trade agreements an’ stabbing assholes who hassle the visitors, y’know how it is, right?”

”Hey, I never asked you to stab Finn for me.” She laughed defensively.

”I’d stab a thousand useless drifters to see _that_ smile one more time.” He replied, chuckling roughly when Emma buried her face in her hands to hide her embarrassment. Hancock raised his brows at MacCready who shook his head in feigned disapproval, but even he couldn’t pretend he wasn’t enjoying seeing Emma so flustered.

”What about _my_ smile Hancock?” MacCready whined sarcastically, Hancock’s mouth formed a hard, unimpressed line as he regarded his huge grin.

”Get that chipped tooth fixed, then we’ll talk.”

Emma reappeared from behind her hands to howl with laughter, drowning out MacCready’s outraged spluttering.

They continued to drink and laugh for a few hours as the bar got louder and busier around them. Eventually, someone ( _Emma_ ) had the bright idea of playing Truth or Dare, and in their inebriated states, no one was smart enough to say no.

As with all of their drinking games, it started off pretty tame, _’Who was your first kiss?’ ‘I dare you to smooth talk a free drink out of Charlie.’_ Then, a very drunk Hancock took his turn, and Emma just so happened to choose ‘dare.’

_She’s either the bravest woman I’ve ever met, or the stupidest._

”Ok Em, I dare ya to start a bar fight.” Hancock said with a superior grin, clearly thinking he’d stumped her. Apparently he thought wrong.

Emma took a quick look at her surroundings, forming a plan in her head, then she stood up without a word and wondered over to the bar. MacCready and Hancock exchanged a confused look before turning back to where she was speaking to Charlie, she handed him a few caps and something else that neither of them could see. He returned moments later with a drink that was a violent shade of pink, she grabbed it with a hurried “Thanks” and wondered over to where a large, tattooed drifter sat surrounded by an equally large gang. MacCready suddenly became very nervous.

”Hancock, if she gets hurt pulling off this stupid dare I swear to God-“

”Relax will ya? She’s a smart one, I’m sure she knows what she’s doin’.” He replied smoothly, though MacCready saw his hand resting lightly on the hilt of the knife he kept concealed within his red duster.

Emma approached the drifter with a shy smile and put the drink down in front of him, muttering something incoherent. He looked at the drink as though it had personally offended his mother, then stood up angrily, he towered over her and MacCready was about to get up and rush to her side when the drifter turned and stormed over to where another group were sat playing cards, he grabbed one of them by the back of the head and slammed his face into the table, sending cards and caps flying everywhere.

”The fuck you playin’ at huh? Buyin’ me pansy ass cocktails!” The drifter roared before being jumped on by the gamblers, it descended into chaos as the remaining drifters joined in the punch up. Emma reappeared from amongst the carnage moments later with a self-satisfied grin on her face and the offending drink in her hand. She dropped back into her seat and took a sip, raising an eyebrow at Hancock who was chuckling delightedly.

”Knew there was a reason I liked you so much, what did you give him?” He nodded to the glass in her hand.

”It’s just vodka, I asked Charlie to squeeze some tarberries into it to turn it pink, after that it was just a case of giving it to the biggest guy in the room and telling him it came from the second biggest guy in the room. Then I just let their egos take over.” She said with a shrug.

”Damn, you’re evil,” Hancock grinned. “Hell of a gamble though, how’d you know that would even work?”

”I worked in a bar while I was in college, trust me, nothing offends a guy like that more than when he thinks his masculinity is being challenged.”

They all shared a laugh as they watched a chair fly across the other side of the bar. No one seemed that bothered about breaking up the fight, most being content to either cheer the fighters on, or ignore them all together. Eventually, Hancock tore his eyes from the punch up and turned to face MacCready.

”Your turn Mac, truth or dare?”

MacCready sighed and met Emma’s expectant gaze. “Well, after that spectacle I’d feel like a bit of a wimp if I didn’t pick dare.”

He felt like he’d just signed his death warrant when he saw the corner of Hancock’s mouth curl up into a sinister grin.

And with good reason.

”I dare ya to kiss Emma. On the lips.”

_Why that sneaky son of a-_

”C’mon, what are we, twelve?” He laughed as he turned to Emma, assuming that she would be laughing along with him, but instead, she was looking back at him nervously, a shy smile on her face and her cheeks flushing crimson. Hancock was loving this.

”Go on Mac, don’t be a wimp.” He winked at him, MacCready looked from one to the other, suddenly petrified. Sure, he wanted to kiss her, he’d thought about it more times than he dared admit, but this wasn’t how he imagined doing it, not for a stupid drunken dare. She deserved so much more than that.

For once, good fortune seemed to smile down on him, because at that moment the fight that Emma had started spilled over to their table as the tattooed drifter crashed into it, sending them all diving out of the way of broken glasses and flailing limbs. Hancock then decided to join in with the brawl and the dare was forgotten about. MacCready laughed and egged the mayor on, glancing over to see Emma chewing on her bottom lip, watching the ongoing fight a little disappointedly. When he furrowed his brows in questioning she simply shook her head and smiled broadly at him.

After a short while, the fight finally died down (or rather, most people who’d been involved in the fight were lying unconscious on the floor and those that weren’t were too drunk or injured to continue.) and Emma suggested they go back to their rooms if they wanted to leave for Med-Tek in the morning.

They tripped and stumbled through the street and into the hotel lobby, laughing childishly at the looks they garnered from Clair, who eyed them disapprovingly as they made their way up the stairs.

”But weren’t you _terrified_ that those drifters would kick the sh-cra-hit you?” MacCready slurred, Emma laughed loudly at his attempts to hide his cursing and shook her head.

”Nah, I think something about me being so small gives people this protective instinct over me. Usually anyway, I mean, I knew I could count on you if I got into trouble.” She grinned drunkenly.

”Oh, so _that’s_ how it is? You only like me for my gun?” He accused playfully.

”Well, that was the main reason I hired you, wasn’t it?” She quipped, laughing again at the mock offence on his face. “Aw, don’t be mad, you know I don’t mean that.” She teased with a nudge to the ribs that sent him off balance, causing them both to laugh even louder, to the point where he was certain that Clair was about to come up and kick them out for being drunk and disorderly.

”Hancock was right, you’re evil.” MacCready said as they reached the top of the stairs, she breathed a faint chuckle and then stopped outside of her room.

”Speaking of Hancock, you never did complete that dare.” She said uncertainly.

He stopped dead in his tracks and turned his head slowly to face her, there was apprehension in her eyes, but also longing, or maybe he was just _very_ drunk?

”Yeah, I uh, didn’t wanna make you uncomfortable. Hancock doesn’t always know when to quit.” He forced out an unconvincing chuckle at his miserable excuse and muttered a hurried “Goodnight” as he turned to go into his room, but not before he heard her mutter “Well just so you know, I wouldn’t have minded.”

MacCready shut he door and leaned with his back against it, he heard the door to her room shut and let out a low groan, pressing the back of his head to the cold wood.

_What the hell is wrong with you? That was practically an open invitation!_

He pushed off from the door and removed some of his layers, throwing his duster, t-shirt and hat on the floor. There was an uncomfortable knot in his stomach that had nothing to do with how much he’d had to drink, he sat down on the edge of the bed and unlaced his boots, replaying her words the whole time.

_’I knew I could count on you.’_

_’I wouldn’t have minded.’_

He groaned again and rubbed his face in annoyance, trying to remove the image of her body in that dress from his head, though it proved pointless, because all he could think of was how much he wanted to gather the material up in his hands and tear it off her body.

_She’s barely just told you that she considers you a close friend, this would only make things awkward. Plus, you’re both drunk, you’d just be taking advantage of her like the selfish ass you are!_

He felt selfish for even thinking of her in that way, her husband hadn’t even been dead a full year ( _Well, I mean, technically he’s been dead for over ten years but dammit Mac that’s not the point!_ ) and he was having thoughts about jumping into bed with her. And what about Duncan? He was lying sick at home while his father was out here getting drunk and drooling over a woman he’d barely known for three months, some role model.

MacCready lay on his back and stared up at the flaking plasterboard on the ceiling for a moment, before closing his eyes in an attempt to counteract the way the room was spinning around him.

”I’m gonna get that cure Duncan, even if it kills me.” He muttered before sleep took hold of him.

He was unsurprised to see that Emma had started worming her way into his dreams too, smiling up at him as she wrapped her arms around his neck and planted small kisses along his jaw, before she was suddenly snatched from his arms and dragged, screaming into a nest of feral ghouls while he looked on completely helpless. He awoke with a start, covered in a cold sweat, and struggled to fall back asleep for the rest of the night. Hancock’s rough chuckle echoed in his head, and his words of wisdom repeated:

_’Love sucks, doesn’t it?’_


	8. Parents like us

MacCready woke up early the next morning feeling like he’d just gone ten rounds in the Combat Zone, and for perhaps the thousandth time he swore off ever touching a drop of alcohol ever again. He got dressed sluggishly before crossing the corridor to Emma’s room where he then had to attempt to wake her up. He may as well have been trying to teach a mirelurk to tap dance for all the good it did him. She grumbled threateningly when he entered the room and kept slapping his hands away whenever he tried to shake her awake. A morning person she was not.

”Fine, I’ll go to Med-Tek without you, but you’re gonna miss out on all the free junk just lying around, think of all the turrets that could build.” He said beguilingly.

She slowly pushed herself up while groaning “Alright, alright I’m getting up, give me ten minutes. Jeez, you’re worse than my mom.” And he retreated out of the room, but not before he heard her mutter something that sounded suspiciously like “I’m never drinking again.”

It ended up being twenty minutes before Emma ambled up to him outside of the Rexford, twisting her hair up into a messy bun with a sweet roll clamped between her teeth. She reached in to her pocket with a free hand and tossed MacCready another one before putting on a large pair of sunglasses to shield her eyes from the rising sun (at least, that’s what she told him, though he strongly suspected it was to hide how red her eyes were). They set off straight away on the relatively short walk over to Med-Tek, passing the time by telling each other about things from their lives that the other hadn’t heard of before. Unsurprisingly, Emma had a lot more to talk about.

”Ok, now you’re just messing with me.”

”I am _not!_ ”

”So you expect me to believe that people used to just throw themselves out of a moving airplane for fun?” MacCready scoffed as they turned into a narrow street to avoid raider territory.

”It was called skydiving, and yes, it was an extreme sport. I did it once when I was nineteen and, let me tell you, I’ve never been so scared in my whole life,” Emma said as they climbed over a damaged wall that the raiders had erected to try and trap unsuspecting travellers, his heart fluttered irritatingly when he reached down and took her hand to help her climb up, seven months removed from the vault and her hands were still impossibly soft, give or take a couple of small callouses. “Man, the thrill was so worth it though.” She added when they dropped down to the ground.

”All that just for an adrenaline rush? I could throw a rock and guarantee that it would hit something that’ll give me a high, why go to such lengths?”

”Well, for one, we didn’t have raiders or super mutants waiting outside our front doors trying to kill us back then. Life was a lot quieter and safer, but that also meant it was sometimes a little boring, sometimes we did crazy things just to feel... _alive_. It must sound totally insane to someone who shoots people for a living.”

“A little, yeah. Though that doesn’t mean I’ve never wished for a quiet life before.” But that’s all it was: a wish. He had learned the hard way what happens if let your guard down for even a second, and he refused to let it happen again, no matter how much he wished his life could change.

”I guess everyone wishes for things in their life that they don’t already have.” Emma replied a little sadly.

It wasn’t much later that they spotted Med-Tek on the horizon, the large structure looked so out of place in its otherwise barren surroundings. The sun had risen properly now and was making his head throb terribly.

”Man, I’d kill for an aspirin right now.” Muttered Emma, pushing her sunglasses further up her nose with a grimace.

”Aspirin?” He repeated as they approached the perimeter of the site, it’s rusted chain link fence was flattened in places and it was easy for them to slip through the gaps.

“Yeah, pain killers. Little tablets we had before the war that worked _wonders_ on hangovers, alongside a bacon sandwich.” She sighed wistfully and threw her head back. “Fuck, I miss bacon.”

They paused to take out a couple of stray ferals roaming the grounds, crouching down amongst the long grass to keep themselves hidden. Emma surprised both of them when she managed to hit a clean headshot with her rifle from around a hundred yards away.

”Well, someone’s been taking notes.” He admired. She scoffed and rolled her eyes at him as she got back to her feet and dusted off her knees.

”Humble as always Mac.”

”You know me.” He paused for a moment in thought, before adding “What’s bacon anyway?”

She sighed sadly and placed a hand on his shoulder while saying dramatically “It was a global treasure that I’m sorry you’ll never get to experience.” He could have swore that she teared up a little, though through her sunglasses he couldn’t be sure.

They stopped in front of the main doors, and for a moment all he did was stare at the sign above them, the peeling letters were almost illegible, but he could still make out the words _Med-Tek: There for you_. All the while, fears that he didn’t dare voice ran rampant through his head:

_What if the access codes don’t work?_

_What if the cure isn’t there?_

And a more recent fear...

_What if I fuck up and get Emma killed? Who will look for Shaun then?_

She seemed to sense his trepidation and brought him back down to earth with an encouraging nudge to the arm, before she removed her sunglasses and shot him a confident, lopsided grin.

”Hey, we’ve got this, right?”

MacCready nodded determinedly and grabbed the handles of the doors. “Let’s get this done.” He answered firmly, throwing them wide open.

Inside the main entrance was dark and stuffy, there was a faint smell of damp and broken furniture was scattered around them from years of scavengers passing through and picking the place clean (“Really, they couldn’t have left me _one_ coffee cup?” Emma complained). As they crept up the stairs, they came across the ferals that Sinclair had warned MacCready about. He hadn’t been kidding when he said the place was overrun, it was a good thing he had Emma by his side.

”Behind you!” she called out as she took care of one that was dropping through a hole in the ceiling. MacCready turned and aimed a hard kick to the chest of another that was getting a little too close for comfort, it landed in a heap on the floor, allowing Emma to deliver the killing blow with her pistol. They paused long enough to reload and high five one another before pressing on upward to the office which housed the executive terminal. MacCready sat down in front of it and dug out a piece of paper with some hastily scrawled writing on it.

“Alright, now let me just... ah _dammit,_ “ he slammed his hand on the desk in frustration. “It’s all coded, Sinclair never mentioned this. Em, d’you think you could...” He gestured to the terminal and made a typing motion with his fingers, earning himself a small chuckle.

”Step aside, let’s see if I learned anything useful from Sturges.” Emma sat down at the terminal and began typing, the clatter of her fingers against the keys breaking the tense silence. She muttered rhythmically under her breath as she worked while MacCready stood behind her biting his knuckle worriedly, and after about five minutes there was a loud _beep_ and a message flagged up on the screen:

_’Facility lockdown has been lifted’_

”Yes!” MacCready hissed as Emma spun in her chair and raised a fist triumphantly. “Em, I could kiss you right now.” He blurted before he could stop himself.

Laughter bubbled from her lips and she rose to her feet, rubbing his arm affectionately as she walked by.

”Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we haven’t actually found the cure yet.”

They made their way down through the now unlocked decontamination chamber into a small reception area. MacCready couldn’t believe how successful they’d been so far, he was practically giddy with relief. So much so that he strolled into the room without noticing the ceiling mounted turret that was aimed at them.

Luckily for him, Emma did.

”DOWN!” She cried, dragging him by the scruff of the neck behind the receptionists desk as the turret began firing rapidly at them. He smacked his head hard on the side of the desk, the explosion of pain at the base of his skull coupled with his hangover made him feel both sick and dazed. Emma acted fast and yanked her rifle from her back, using the desk for support she lined up her shot quickly and fired once, hitting just the right spot to blow the turret up.

_Holy shit, she really has been taking notes!_

It dropped to the floor with a loud clatter and after waiting a few moments to make sure that the noise hadn’t attracted anything else unpleasant, she scurried to his side and snatched his hat from his head.

”Hey, what’re you-”

”Relax, I just need to check you over, you hit your head pretty hard,” She said, her voice strained with worry as she felt the back of his head for any bleeding. “Do you feel dizzy or nauseous at all?”

“Uh...”

He tried to think about it, but all he noticed was the feel of her cool fingers resting on the back of his neck, it was enough to make him hope that he received a head injury every damn day for the rest of his life.

_Oh, I feel pretty nauseous alright. Probably not what she means though._

”I’m alright, honestly, just bumped my head a little bit.” He insisted, trying to stand up, but Emma pushed him back down and took his face in her hands, staring intently into his eyes. He swallowed nervously as she commanded him to look at her, she was so close that, even in the dimly lit reception, he could see the light dusting of freckles on her cheekbones. Their mouths were inches apart.

_So damn close, if I just close the distance..._

Emma pulled away and removed her hands from his face, apparently satisfied with his condition judging by the way her shoulders slumped with relief. “Well, I don’t think you have a concussion, I’m keeping an eye on you though, just in case.” She stood up and retrieved her rifle from the floor before holding out a hand to help him to his feet.

”Whatever you say, Em.” He replied nonchalantly as he staggered to his feet and replaced his hat on top of his head, trying to maintain an air of calm and ignore the fact that he’d just mentally associated the blue of her eyes with the colour of a hubflower. She stared at him a moment longer, as though waiting to see if he would keel over, then turned and began walking away.

“Just, be more careful next time. I dunno what I’d do if I lost you back there.” She mumbled softly.

MacCready was glad that Emma had her back to him, because there was no explaining away the flush that crept up his cheeks as a concussion, so he hummed an affirmative reply and followed her into the elevator that would take them to the lower levels, avoiding her gaze the whole time.

 

* * *

 

When the doors of the elevator opened again, they were immediately greeted by the strong scent of decay, clearly they were the first ones down there in a very long time. They both coughed and clamped their hands over their noses as they walked on, eyes streaming, travelling deeper into the bowels of the building. There was no sound except for their own footsteps echoing down the corridor, it made MacCready a little nervous.

“It’s quiet, _too_ quiet,” He said dubiously before bursting into fits of laughter. “Oh man, I’ve always wanted to say that.”

Emma reappeared from a room she’d been scavenging in and groaned loudly. “Wow, of all the legendary quotes that could have survived the last two hundred years, _that_ had to be one of them?”

MacCready pulled a childish face at her. “Alright then know-it-all, let’s hear one of your _legendary_ pre-war quotes.”

She thought about it for a moment as she closed her now bulging bag, her tongue pressed firmly against the inside of her cheek. Then her eyes lit up and the corners of her mouth twitched.

”I have a good one: ’With great power comes great responsibility.’” She said with an air of grandeur. It was MacCready’s turn to groan.

”Where the heck did you learn that one, a fortune cookie?”

She snorted back at him. “I’m surprised you even know what a fortune cookie is.”

He had a sarcastic reply ready, but it was cut off by a low rasp coming from a room they were passing by as a feral ghoul came bolting out of the shadows and collided with Emma, knocking her to the floor and falling on top of her.

”M-MacCready!” She cried, struggling to fight the ghoul off as it tried to claw at her face with sharp fingers. MacCready reached for the knife he kept tucked in his belt in a panic and launched himself at the feral, grabbing it by the throat and plunging the knife into the side of its head. It let out a garbled howl and struggled beneath his grip before its body fell limp. He shoved it to the floor and knelt down to help Emma into a sitting position, she was shaking a little and there was a thin cut on the side of her face, blood was beginning to blossom in the areas where it was deeper.

”Em look at me, are you alright?” He fretted, trying to cup her face in his hands to look at the injury, but she swatted his hand away and sprang to her feet, pulling out her pistol.

 _”Fine,_ look out!”

She raised her gun and fired off several rounds into the chest of an oncoming feral as more appeared at the far end of the corridor, drawn by the commotion. MacCready swore loudly despite himself and jumped up, drawing his rifle.

_Ferals. Why is it always fucking ferals?_

”So much for quiet.” He said through gritted teeth. He was certain that he heard Emma giggle beside him, but he couldn’t be sure over the deafening sound of gunfire echoing off the walls.

They spent the next ten minutes wiping out the ferals. There were a lot of them, but the narrow corridor slowed them down massively, making it easy to kill them before they got too close.

_Like shooting fish in a barrel._

Once they were all taken care of, Emma leaned unsteadily against a nearby wall and slid down it, coughing and retching violently.

”Hey, hey, deep breaths. Here.” He soothed, placing one hand on her arm and handing her a bottle of purified water with the other, which she took with a nod before gulping down. Her face had gone pale and there was a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead. MacCready looked over at the dead ghoul that had attacked her.

_Fuck._

“Let me take a look at that cut, I think the radiation from that ghoul’s making you sick.” He said, dropping his bag on the floor and rifling through it. Emma grunted impatiently through a mouthful of water and shook her head.

”Mac, we don’t have time for this.” She complained, wiping her cheek with the palm of her hand and giving a cursory glance to the blood smeared there as MacCready pulled out a syringe full of rad-away.

”You stopped everything to make sure I didn’t have a concussion, I’d be a pretty cra- uh, bad friend if I let you carry on with radiation sickness.” MacCready insisted, he dug through his bag until he found what else he needed: a clean cloth and a bottle of antiseptic he’d purchased from Daisy after the incident in Lexington.

_Emma’s not the only one who’s been taking notes._

Her petulant sigh quickly turned into a sharp inhale when he pressed the soaked cloth to her face without warning, MacCready watched the muscles in her jaw tighten as he wiped away the blood.

”What does Shaun look like?” He asked as he injected her with rad-away in an attempt to distract her from the stinging pain in her face. She glanced down at the needle in her arm and her face relaxed a little as a small smile crept across her face, MacCready recognised it in an instant, it was the same smile that Lucy had whenever she looked at Duncan.

_A mother’s smile._

”Shaun, he’s... he’s Nate’s double in nearly every way, even more so now that he’s older. Handsome face and light brown hair, he’s got my eyes though, Nate’s were hazel.”

”Sounds like a good looking kid, I hope he didn’t inherit your lack of rad-resistance too.” He smirked, removing the needle from her arm and discarding it, he waited until the pointer on her geiger counter had reduced to an acceptable level before allowing her to roll her sleeve down again.

She stood up and wiped her brow with the back of her hand while huffing out a short laugh. “Well, what about Duncan? Is he a mini, less annoying version of his dad?”

”Ha! Actually yeah, he looks a lot like me. He’s got these huge blue eyes, always uses them to get his own way. He’s tall too for his age, probably grown a couple more inches since I last saw him.”

He stopped then when he remembered that the last time he saw his son, he was bed ridden and could barely keep any food down, the sight alone nearly destroyed MacCready. But Duncan was still able to give him a weak smile, and made him promise to bring back something cool from the Commonwealth, he’d always been such a ray of light.

Emma looked down to where MacCready had paused in the middle of closing his bag and rested a hand on his shoulder.

”They’re both gonna be fine. How could they not be with parents like us looking out for them?”

He wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince more, him, or herself. But he smiled nonetheless and stood up, slinging his bag and rifle back over his shoulders.

”Parents like us is _exactly_ what I’m worried about.” He smirked, gesturing to the piled up corpses around them before continuing on down the corridor.

They didn’t how long they had been walking or how far underground they’d travelled when they finally found the facility’s main research lab, they stepped through the shattered glass doors and gasped in unison at the site. The room was full of refrigerators, medical equipment... and bones, so many bones. MacCready heard Emma murmur something in a completely different language and turned his head to ask her to repeat it when another sound over in the other side of the room drew their attention to where a glowing one was crouched in the corner, twisting its ugly head to look at them.

”Sh- _move!_ ” He urged as the feral lumbered towards them with alarming speed. They both dived in opposite directions, causing the ghoul to stumble past them both and tumble to the floor, this gave them ample opportunity to start firing on it as it lay prone, but it didn’t want to go down without a fight. It scrambled back to its feet and leapt towards Emma, falling on the floor again as she hopped backward and struck it hard in the head with the butt of her rifle.

”Out the way!” MacCready yelled as he raised his weapon. Emma leapt over the bench, scattering old bones and test tubes on the floor, and he opened fire on the glowing one, shooting it ruthlessly until, _finally,_ it stopped moving, it’s green blood pooling around its body.

”Well, no one can say we don’t work hard for what we have.” Emma panted, holstering her gun and immediately turning to start looking around the room, MacCready followed suit and began searching through one of the refrigerators, being extremely careful not to touch any of the bones placed meticulously inside.

_I don’t even wanna think about why these are in here._

They rifled through coolers and boxes, took apart shelves full of medicine and dug through boxes of syringes, but were yet to stumble upon the cure. MacCready was beginning to panic when...

”Mac I... I think this is it.”

He dropped the flask he’d just picked up and raced to Emma’s side where she was holding a small syringe in her hand. There was a yellowing label attached with the word _‘Prevent’_ stamped across it, MacCready took it with shaking hands, biting the inside of his cheek hard just to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

”We did it, I can’t believe we actually did it.” He laughed breathlessly, all at once a seemingly endless weight lifted from his shoulders. Emma smiled at him with tears in her eyes and took the syringe back, wrapping it up in a t-shirt and tucking it carefully into her bag.

”I knew we would. Duncan’s gonna be so happy to see that his daddy came through for him, what a hero.” She beamed as she rubbed the wetness from her eyes.

His own smile faltered. He’d been called many things in his life, and most of them didn’t bare repeating, but hero was not one of them. He kind of loved it. The same way he loved the proud smile that stretched across Emma’s face. He opened his mouth to say something to her, _anything,_ but no sound came out. He just stared at her, slack jawed like an idiot, he needed to do something. Something to show her how much she meant to him, how grateful he was for everything she’d done.

So he grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her into a fierce kiss.

The shocked gasp that escaped Emma’s lips quickly turned into a pleased moan and she responded to him in kind, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and opening her mouth further to deepen the kiss. MacCready snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her closer so that their chests were pinned together as she balled a fist into his hair and keened happily into his mouth. _Damn._ He couldn’t remember the last time he’d kissed (or been kissed) like this, every brush of her tongue against his made his breath catch in his throat, and every time her teeth nipped at his lower lip a surge of heat went straight to his groin. It was all he could do to stop himself from lifting her onto the counter and having her then and there.

After a few moments they finally broke apart to catch their breath, but they kept their arms wrapped around each other. Emma licked her bottom lip, her eyes were wide with surprise and she was breathing pretty hard, MacCready honestly couldn’t openly admit what the sight did to him.

”You have no idea how much I wanted to do that last night.” He panted, stroking the line of her jaw with his thumb.

”Probably about as much as _I_ wanted you to do to it.” She replied, laughing sweetly at the smug smile on his face. He could have listened to that laugh forever, because he was the cause of it and she’d just helped him save Duncan’s life and _holy crap_! He just kissed Emma, and she didn’t freak out and leave him the way she did in half of his fantasies (the other half had her practically screaming for him to fuck her, but this reality was easily second best).

Emma took a tentative step back and cleared her throat. ”Um, not to kill the mood or anything, but, you wanna get out of here? It still smells rank down here and I’ve been trying _really_ hard not to throw up for the last half hour. It’d be a shame to slip up now.”

MacCready was still grinning like a Cheshire Cat as he dropped his arms and nodded towards the door.

”After you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s finally finished!!
> 
> I struggled so much with this chapter but I’m so pleased with how it turned out, I hope you are too! (Dat kiss tho)
> 
> If you’re still reading this far along then THANK YOU, your support means the world to me.  
> Until the next time


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